by Kadri Simson Centre party faction chairperson
Postimees 4 September
On 2 September, British journalist, Abdul Turay commented about my position that Estonia needs to boost its economy with a support packet model like US president Obama's.
Looking critical at the content of the article, gives rise to the question, did the foreign journalist critically read through the proposal. The journalist understands that aid packets by the governments of the USA and Great Britain are above all to get banks out of difficulties and points to how this proposal is irrelevant in Estonia, as here we don't have our own banks.
Unfortunately Turay is fighting with non-existent adversaries, because my proposals for an economic boost packet didn't even deal with banks, in that part. Obama package content, which deserves to be followed in Estonia, is compensation for decrease in internal demand through state orders, which will enable jobs to be preserved.
The crisis package has been taken up in Germany and France and their economies show signs of economic recovery, relatively successfully. So to name crisis packages dumb is indeed a fallacy. As proved by the performance of Estonia which is so far without a decent crisis package.
(Editor's note: Normally I don't comment on responses to my articles. I just publish them and let the reader decide. But with this one I felt I had to say something.
Ms Simson, the bail out package in the USA was designed primarily for banks, that is a fact. These new New Deal, rampant Keynesian, aspects of package, were tacked on later as an afterthought.
By talking specifically about the Obama package in the USA, you make a comparison between the US and Estonian economies. They are not comparable. That was my criticism and it is still legitimate.
It's only when I published my article that you backtracked and started to talk about Germany and France. As yourself have said, it's too early to say whether this crisis is over. If that is true in the USA, surely it is true in Germany and France?
You still haven't answered the main question I posed, at all. How is this country going to pay for this, with no mechanism for deficit spending? Raising taxes perhaps. That won't go down to well with Centre Party supporters and kind of defeats the point, don't you think?)
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