In remarks at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, European Central Bank
president Mario Draghi urged greater fiscal and monetary coordination to boost
the E.U.’s economy. A ship cannot move along at full speed if all the sails are
not coordinated so that each is poised at its optimal angle to the prevailing
winds. So too, various policies in a political economy must all sail in the
same direction for a full-sail recovery to really take off. Just as a sailing
ship must avoid jagged pitfalls lurking in rocky waters, so too must policy
makers; for it is all too easy in focusing on one point on the horizon to
ignore or dismiss baleful downsides to the dominant policies.
The entire essay is at "Should the ECB Buy State Bonds and Encourage State Deficits?"
