Put a bunch of European leaders in a room and it is fair bet that the conversation turns to the rise of populist politics across the continent. A year or so ago, the same politicians would have been obsessed with the markets’ threat to the euro. Now they worry about whether European democracy can survive the shock of saving the single currency.
The age of austerity is passing. The other day the Paris-based OECD hosted a debate called “Austerity versus Growth”. This is a false choice – austerity is a policy, growth an objective.
But I was struck, anyway, by the overwhelming hostility of the assembled experts and policy makers to any idea that Europe should hold fast to deflationary fiscal policies; Europeans should instead consider how accelerating growth (albeit with some spending cuts) has transformed the US budgetary outlook.