From Paul Krugman, bemoaning the fact that the European Central Bank has adopted such tight monetary policy:
The fact is that the ECB is highly credible: most observers, me included, are quite sure that it is totally allergic to inflation and relatively indifferent to the collapse of the real economy.
Yeah, I really don’t think the ECB has any inflation credibility issues at this point. Neither does the Fed. But they very definitely have some serious growth credibility issues.
So, anyway, as this post suggests, I’m back from Europe. Did their financial crisis affect me? Nope. Not a bit. But I will say this: in a fit of paranoia that I won’t pretend was fully rational, I took $2,000 in cash with me, something I’ve never done before. Why? I dunno. Just in case. I figured if the eurozone chose last week to collapse in panic, U.S. hundred-dollar bills might be a nice, 100% sure source of liquidity. Silly of me, I suppose, but there you have it.
And with that, I want to take this chance to thank all my guest bloggers for the past couple of weeks: Adam Serwer, Erik Kain, and Heather “Digby” Parton. I mean, not only did they write a lot of great stuff while I was gone (and you do follow them at their home blogs, don’t you?), but they even kept up Friday Catblogging. How great is that? Adam’s herd of Garfields is….impressive, no? And thanks also to Kate Sheppard, for extra bonus catblogging.
All this means that nobody has any reason to complain of cat withdrawal symptoms, which means I really have no excuse for writing an interminable Cat Tour of Europe™ post tomorrow. But I’m going to anyway. I know you’re all looking forward to it, aren’t you?
