European, US leaders have same ‘tactics’ addressing economic problems (2)

The third tactic is speaking ambiguously. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan once said, “If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said.” Greenspan is good at speaking ambiguously, and other European and U.S. leaders have also often adopted this tactic.

It should be noted that European and U.S. leaders have clearly expressed their will to curb the economic crisis and restore economic growth. However, they have always made ambiguous replies to answers regarding specific measures. For example, both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have pledged to safeguard the eurozone, but have not said clearly how much money and effort they will devote to the cause.

The two major U.S. political parties have reached a consensus on budget deficit cuts, but failed to bring forward specific measures and kept blaming each other. The United States has performed worse than Greece in this regard because Greece has at least implemented specific austerity measures.

Fourth, they use brinkmanship. In 1956, former U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had advocated that the United States did not fear of coming to the brink of war but should learn the art of coming to the brink of war but not involving in it. The proposal was called "brinkmanship" in U.S. foreign policy. Now, the leaders of Europe and the United States also play the tricks in the domestic policy debates.

The European Union agreed to bail out Greece, but some state leaders always found all kinds of excuses to obstruct the allocation of relief fund to Greece until the last minute. This time, the United States gave full play to the brinkmanship during the negotiations about "agreement of fiscal cliff."

In the next several weeks, Europe and the United States will bicker for money, with the EU for the long-term budget between 2014 and 2020 while the United States for raising the debt ceiling. It is sure that the bickering will not stop soon and the four strategic "wars" will be staged simultaneously.

Read the Chinese version: 欧美政客战法越来越相似了, source: China Youth Daily

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