Afternoon Must-Read: Paul Krugman: Crisis of the Eurocrats

Paul Krugman: Crisis of the Eurocrats: “The bitter irony here is that Europe’s elite…

…isn’t actually technocratic. The creation of the euro was about politics and ideology, not a response to careful economic analysis…. The same can be said of the turn to austerity: All the economic research supposedly justifying that turn has been discredited, but the policies haven’t changed…. And the European elite’s habit of disguising ideology as expertise, of pretending that what it wants to do is what must be done, has created a deficit of legitimacy. The elite’s influence rests on the presumption of superior expertise; when those claims of expertise are proved hollow, it has nothing to fall back on…. There are some very scary people waiting in the wings. If we’re lucky–and if officials at the European Central Bank, who are closer to being genuine technocrats than the rest of the elite, act boldly enough against the growing threat of deflation–we may see some real economic recovery over the next few years. This could, in turn, offer a breathing space…. But economic recovery by itself won’t be enough; Europe’s elite needs to recall what the project is really about. It’s terrifying to see so many Europeans rejecting democratic values, but at least part of the blame rests with officials who seem more interested in price stability and fiscal probity than in democracy. Modern Europe is built on a noble idea, but that idea needs more defenders.