Can someone please tell Angela Merkel that the world is behind Gordon Brown in a great consensus? Because the German Chancellor seems to have forgotten. After rejecting Brown’s casino approach to public finance (borrow like mad, and encourage the public to do the same, then hail yourself as an economic genius), Germany has two things Britain woefully lacks: a balanced budget and a trade surplus.
Germans have always been nervous about the debt-fuelled growth which Brown relied on. They recognise the danger in asset bubbles. The Bundesbank was always mindful of this, and its DNA is in the ECB which has handled this better than the Bank of England. Germany also has more reason to support a VAT cut: it still makes stuff, whereas our VAT cut will be celebrated in the streets of Guang Dong.
But, anyway, back to Merkel.
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