The Bloomberg Op Ed article (August 19, 2014) – European Austerity Is a Myth – is about as flaky as it gets. The author is intent on justifying the article title by examining changes in government spending (as a per cent of GDP). He produces what he claims is “more appropriately called the ‘graph of the decade'”, which would mean it was some graph, but in reality tells us very little and does not provide the basis for his conclusion that rising government spending since 2007 is evidence that austerity has not been imposed. Oh dear! Some points need to be made.

According to data just published by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), its national statistics agency, the French economy has stalled in the second-quarter 2014. In its – Informations Rapides, Principaux indicateurs 14 août 2014 – n°186 – we learn that the “le PIB en volume est stable”, which is a cute French way of saying that real GDP growth was zero, building on the zero growth from the first-quarter, which means their terminology that it is “stable” is accurate but an understatement. The latest data from Eurostat (August 14, 2014) – GDP stable in the euro area and up by 0.2% in the EU28 – show that the three largest economies in the Eurozone (and Europe) are either in recession (Italy) or teetering on recession (France, Germany). The French Finance Minister reacted to this news by calling for a rethink of economic policy in Europe with a shift in emphasis to growth. He indicated that the French government would reduce its deficit in its own time without undermining new stimulus measures aimed at kickstarted domestic growth and reducing the unemployment rate. It is looking like 2003 all over again.]