When, in April, Wolfgang Sch?uble, Germany’s finance minister, sharply criticised the policies of the European Central Bank, he was expressing a distinctive macroeconomic approach which shapes the views of German economists and policymakers alike. It is based on the strong conviction that problems of aggregate demand are of secondary importance as long as prices are sufficiently flexible. This explains the German insistence on structural reform as the solution to almost all economic problems and the quasi-religious fixation on the “black zero”, the balanced fiscal budget with no red ink.
當德國財長沃爾夫岡?朔伊布勒(Wolfgang Sch?uble)在今年4月激烈批評歐洲央行(ECB)的政策的時候，他在表述一種影響著德國經濟學家和政策制定者的獨特宏觀經濟策略。這種策略基于一種堅定的信念：只要價格足夠靈活，總需求的問題是次要的。這解釋了德國為何堅持將結構性改革視為幾乎所有經濟問題的解決方法，以及為何德國對“黑零”——沒有赤字的平衡的財政預算——有一種近乎宗教式的執著。