German economy grows thanks to Keynes

Germany's Economics Minister Rainer Brüderle on Thursday raised the growth forecasts for 2010 to 3.4 percent. However the credit goes not to him but to the theories of economist John Maynard Keynes, writes the left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau: "Brüderle is no fan of Keynes. ... But Germany has acted in a Keynsian way and primed the pump of economic recovery, which brings us right back to Brüderle. As economic expert of the FDP he fought tooth and nail against the two German programmes that were much praised internationally, the scrapping premium and the prolongation of the short-time allowance. ... According to the official FDP position the scrapping premium is 'economic nonsense' (in Brüderle's own words), and the short-time allowance only strews sand in people's faces. ... But there's still work for him to do elsewhere. He should subject all austerity measures and tax raises to one proviso: do they dampen or boost domestic demand? ... Then, Mr Minister, you too will have done your bit to aid the recovery, by allowing Germany to return the growth which it is currently borrowing to other countries."

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