Europe's Big Mistake

James Surowiecki, The New Yorker
In July, 2008, on the eve of the biggest financial crisis in memory, the European Central Bank did something both predictable and stupid: it raised interest rates. The move was predictable because the E.C.B.’s president, Jean-Claude Trichet, was an inflation hawk; he worried about rising oil and food prices and saw a rate hike as a way of tamping them down. But the move was also remarkably ill timed. The crisis was already under way, European economic growth had slowed to a crawl, and within a couple of months the global economy had collapsed, inflation had disappeared, and the...

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/08/29/europe039s_big_mistake_262465.html

nancy pelosi harry reid john mccain al gore bill clinton