Germany Rebuffs IMF Pressure for Stimulus

Germany wants nothing of the International Monetary Fund pressure to allow some money that will go to Europe's financially weakest nations to be used for stimulus and not to underwrite recoveries based on austerity. According to Reuters:

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Europe had made plenty of crisis-fighting progress, echoing comments from other European officials who said there should be greater attention paid to U.S. fiscal troubles.

Germany's plans almost certainly will trump those of the IMF's Christine Lagarde, if only because the country is such a large contributor to bailout programs, particularly the European Stability Mechanism. The ESM is the cornerstone of plans to fight the deficits that threaten to bring down the economies of several eurozone countries.

Douglas A. McIntyre