'Historians are going to tar and feather Europe’s central bankers'

“An array of Nobel economists have launched a blistering attack on the eurozone’s economic strategy, warning that contractionary policies risk years of depression and a fresh eruption of the debt crisis.”

“'Historians are going to tar and feather Europe’s central bankers,' said Professor Peter Diamond, the world’s leading expert on unemployment.”

“'Young people in Spain and Italy who hit the job market in this recession are going to be affected for decades. It is a terrible outcome, and it is surprising how little uproar there has been over policies that are so stunningly destructive,' he told The Telegraph at a gathering of Nobel laureates at Lake Constance.”

“Professor Joseph Stiglitz said austerity policies had been a 'disastrous failure' and are directly responsible for the failed recovery over the first half of this year, with Italy falling into a triple-dip recession, France registering zero growth and even Germany contracting in the second quarter.”

“Mr Stiglitz said the eurozone authorities had massively underestimated the contractionary effects of austerity and continue to persist in error despite claims that the crisis is over. 'I am very concerned about the future of monetary union, and they haven’t yet felt the impact of geopolitical tensions.'”

“Professor Christopher Sims, a U.S. expert on monetary policy, said EMU policy makers had not sorted out the basic design flaws in monetary union, and are driving Club Med nations into deeper trouble by imposing pro-cyclical austerity. 'If I were advising Greece, Portugal or even Spain, I would tell them to prepare contingency plans to leave the euro. There is no point being in EMU if all that happens when you are hit with a shock is that the shock gets worse,' [...] 'It would be very costly to leave the euro, a form of default, but staying in the euro is also very costly for these countries. The Europeans have created a system that is worse than the Gold Standard. Countries are in the same position as Latin American states that borrowed in dollars,' he said.”

http://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/21/historians-will-tar-and-feather-europes-central-bankers-says-nobel-laureate/