Monday, May 7, 2012

Elections in Europe

As expected, Hollande defeated Sarkozy in France.  This will change the status quo relationship between Germany and France, and may shake up the entire EU.  People are not voting for austerity.  I do not want to try and analyze the situation as yet since there may be other shake ups. But I am looking foreward to going to Germany to teach a course on public policy this summer.  Hearing the views of people there and reading European press provides insights hard to get here.  Especially is one gets his news from TV news. (I watched the first thirty minutes of the Today Show this morning, and the coverage of the European elections was minimal.)

I expected Paul Krugman's op-ed column this morning to argue that the elections show that the people do not want austerity and that it is time to promote growth through deficit spending.l  I was not disappointed.

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