Further to my earlier post that Bill Gross of Bond Fund Pimco has come out against austerity, (http://www.andaluciasteve.com/the-game-is-up-for-austerity.aspx) another important anti-austerity statement has come from Brussels.
José Manuel Barroso who heads the European Commission, in a story again from the Financial Times said at a press conference that while he defends austerity as being broadly right, he says it has "reached it's limits"!
Reading further down in the statement of 'what he actually said' on the commission web site (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-368_en.htm), he appears quite critical of the economists behind austerity, saying "I know that there are some technocratic advisors who tell us what is the perfect model to respond to a situation, but when we ask how we implement it, they say that is not my business."
My take on that statement is that he's saying the guys (and gals) who came up with this crazy plan did not tell me what to do and I ended up looking like a right plum.
He goes on to lay blame at the gate of "management, technology, policy, wrong or good decisions, policy and politics". Erm, being the head of the commission, isn't that kind of like his responsibilty? Isn't it the job of Barosso and his elk on the fat cat salaries to figure out what the right policies are and implement them?