Geithner Tries to Calm Nerves Over Europe’s Uncertain Fate

have you noticed that talking head dc officialdom has more flags in the background than ever? they are running scared. and oh those ghoulish looking oily oil execs playing hair splitting nuance and on public tv ..... had any of them ever seen the light of day before? are these the rummage closet sacrificial lambs or the real deal zombies? the entire debt game is classic misdirection. ahhh nevermind. someone hit the reset button please.

Trolls are really no fun at all.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/et-tu-wolfgang/

Et Tu, Wolfgang?

Perhaps the most startling and frustrating thing about the debate over the fate of the euro is the way almost everyone avoids confronting the core issue — the elephant in the euro. With a unified currency, adjustment to differential shocks requires adjustments in relative wages — and because the nations of the European periphery have gone from boom to bust, their adjustment must be downward. At this point, wages in Greece/Spain/Portugal/Latvia/Estonia etc. need to fall something like 20-30 percent relative to wages in Germany. Let me repeat that:

WAGES IN THE PERIPHERY NEED TO FALL 20-30 PERCENT RELATIVE TO GERMANY.