Fall of the Dutch

[eppie]

This doesn't make any sense to me. Even you have admitted that this is not the right time for austerity. If the Dutch start spending more (the only possible implication of breaking the "hard line"), then surely this can only help boost economic growth everywhere else in Europe? The "wounds" are not beginning to heal in Europe. To the contrary, economies are beginning to shrink, because every government is pursuing insane "contraction during a contraction" policies. Since nobody can devalue, the only way out of the trap is for rich (Netherlands, Germany) Eurozone countries to run deficits. In this context, a hard line is precisely the opposite of what needs to be done.

-Jester

Correct, but this is one of the great misteries of politics.
The right wing is always for letting the market solve things while the left wants the government to have more influence. Now it is crisis and the right wing wants to cut cost and limit spending while they know that that will damage the economy, and now the left says to not be too strict with saving.