That's why Bruegel has made a good point (# Bruegel:'Europeans can't blog')

Dear reader,

yesterday the author received a short message on his Twitter channel originating from esteemed blogging author @blicklog:

"New Bruegel-Blog ist starting quite arrogant and with little knowledge about European Blogosphere http://www.bruegel.org/blog/detail/article/708-europeans-cant-blog" (Mar 17th 18.03 CET)

So the immediate response to his assumtion of Bruegel-blog being "arrogant and with little knowledge" @blicklog received a tweet which said that he should look what they (bruegel) wrote at the very end of their blog entry which is that is not the intention to offend anyone.

Having said so for the immediate defense of Bruegel and driven by the simple fact that Twitter and its 140 characters limited tweets are hardly enough to discuss matters deeper it was decided to use this blog entry in order to make a few remarks on that matter , too.

As it is the intention of this project "Eurozoneremarks" to deliver as much and as detailed and accurate information to readers in Europe and beyond it was decided to use mainly the English language to be able to reach as many different European citizens as possible since English is the language most commonly used on the planet. In order to enhance the understanding of what other fine European brains like that of Mr Paul de Grauwe think and produce it was translated into a language of those individuals it was intended for ;-)


Back to the point that Eurozoneremarks collects articles, knowledge, opinions issued by different people of very different countries the author also came along several blogs with some authors being more in the public eye than others. Some are being published by "common economists" and others by professors helming government advice bodies. In order to stay always connected to important issues of the eurozone crisis the meanwhile famous Target2 debate was followed last year already before this blog appeared on the Internet and even more so since March 1st this year when the blog entry "Target2 facts and discussion" was published and updated almost on a daily basis since then. So by own experience the points Bruegel blog was making can be supported even be enhanced by saying that some European economists even seem to take points of view very personal and behave more like a prima donna than a highly educated person. When people bearing the rank of a professor and leading one of Europe's leading research institutes and being part of government advisory board have 'seemingly wrong ideas' i expect those who feel a strong sentiment  of disagreement to react like e.g. Paul Krugman who at least shows his opponents the courtesy of NAMING them instead of referring to them as "the other one" or so.  Paul Krugman always makes a point by exposing the bs (according to his views) by using data and facts to support his views.

So not only has Bruegel a point when emphasizing that there is a lack of interconnection by European economists by missing links on the blogs they are using (if they use them at all or if they are members of social networks like Twitter at all). They are not even referring to the other one they disagree with by name. How should a reader not in full knowledge of the full pretext know what is going on ? So some economists like Paul de Grauwe left their 'ivory tower' (as he points out himself)  in order to give their views a broader audience than 'just' students or colleagues they meet on some events of importance. So this is already a first step in order to discuss matters which the author dares to say nobody of us living has ever experienced before and even those who survived the great depression did not know many of todays financing gimmicks and their possible risks to the financial system as a whole.

But not only the missing interconnection of blogging authors mainly using a platform in order to issue an own statement/view of a situation is properly detected by Bruegel. Also the tendency of national economists to feed national papers with some national economic problems perhaps without giving the right attention to the broader European context. So not only does the language barrier form an obstruction to detect country specific economic problems but also the missing perspective from those countries within a greater European context. So it is not only a problem for Greece alone that it could go on for 10+ years undetected of their own problems but the same thing is perhaps happening right now with other countries who know their 'internal problems' but those are not recognized by fellow members of the eurozone. There are some specific items on the authors mind which can be found in the background area of this blog.

Of course so far eurozone countries did perform more or less well without giving too much attention to other countries but since crisis of GIPSI states we have to see that our national fate is very much interlinked with those of other countries and while smaller economies like Greece may not be an ultimate problem for the rest of the eurozone Italy is surely another reminder that by not knowing what is happening in Italy we could face SUDDEN catastrophic failure of the EMU. And also the sudden attention of US financial media and economists should inspire us Europeans to enhance the flow of information not only for the needs of ourselves but also for those poor souls across the atlantic trying to keep up with events here in 17 countries with many different economies and languages.

When it could be assumed right that problems can only be fixed when there is a profound analysis of what went wrong in the first place it is also the better the more we know about about specific problems of each country. Like in the medical profession a proper diagnosis is the foundation for a quick and effective treatment of a health problem.What happens when nobody understands the real causes of a negative development can be seen currently in The Netherlands where the public was shocked by latest projections of CPB concerning future budget deficit and the current difference in GDP growth figures compared to Germany which is outperforming the NL since a couple of years while both countries were closely connected by their "twin" economic data. So because of a lack of available information on what makes the German economy so successful it was widely assumed that in NL a lack of consumer confidence must be responsible for the sudden downturn. Utterly wrong assumption of course, but a conclusion which can be drawn out of the mantra the Dutch media is playing almost on a daily basis: crisis in pension sector and crisis in real estate sector ... So people are forced to get to the wrong conclusions ! But this is just one example out of many similar European "misperceptions".

As it is the main goal of this blog to reduce the "information gap" just as one person can do it in his spare time it was once tried on a more professional level but was shut down because lack of sufficient funding by a too small readership:

Newspaper project "The European"

As it is always a necessity to see some unfortunate developments very critical in order to change things to the better. The author here came to similar conclusions as the authors publishing their views in the new blog of the Bruegel institute. It was more like a wake-up call then an attempt to ridicule European smart brains. It was a bit like the demand here on this comment section of this blog to lift the viewpoint from European country level to European continent level which is still near enough  to see the details but also distanced enough to see the big picture. Half way between "old Europe" and the US so to speak.

But one point Bruegel blog did not make, is to be added: The very negative tendency of some European journalists to inform their audience in a way that the recipients are forced to follow a preplanned political path. Found not so much among highly specialized reporters of the financial world but more in the mainstream media which have their own political agenda.  One example of that failure here where the author was utterly upset and so was his comment very 'spicy'.

[update]
Mar 20th The vantage point of the frog
Mar 26th Yes Europeans learn how to blog
Mar 28th Europe speaks German !

[/update]