Weidmann the Strict

BuBa chief Jens Weidmann is complaining about the EU Commission's decision to eschew confrontation with France over its repeated inability to deliver on its debt and deficit targets, and rightly so.

Some people may argue that the French government's recent willingness to implement some long-overdue, if halfhearted reforms, should be taken into account as a sign of goodwill. Perhaps, but it was precisely the “original Maastricht sin” of 2002-2003, when neither France nor Germany were taken to task for violating the treaty with their deficit overshoots that created the preconditions that later made it seem normal for many others to violate these limits as well (admittedly, this has to be brought into context with the artificial boom of 2002-2007 and the subsequent bust).

Nevertheless, the fiscal compact strikes as one of the more sensible EU regulations (although it is obviously difficult to enforce it against a big member nation). Not only because the euro's survival essentially depends on it, but also because keeping government spending under control is good for the economy at large in any event.

If we have a gripe in this context, it is mainly that European governments are often inclined to raise taxes rather than cutting their spending. Both France and Italy currently stand as monuments to the folly of this approach.

Jens Weidmann shortly after learning that France's government will get away with a slap on the wrist.

Photo credit: Eric Piermont / AFP 

Below is Reuters reporting on Weidmann's objections. Incidentally, he is evidently also one of only very few modern-day central bankers refusing to get carried away by deflation paranoia: