Josh Marshall’s neolib flaks still attack ‘old Europe’

Simon Johnson has some good things to say about the current crisis and how we got here, but his continued simplistic browbeating of the EU over its refusal to adopt a US-UK “solution” to the problem is getting irritating.

Now, Johnson says, if “old Europe” is going to be obstructionist on International Monetary Fund issues, we need to force its hand:

The masterstroke is simple and also brilliant. The US is pushing for - and likely to get - the Managing Director (known as the MD) of the IMF to be selected through an open, competitive and merit-based selection process.

To which I replied, both to him and some of the TPM commenters who swallowed his line:

So, Mr. Johnson, are we going to open the World Bank chairmanship to an open election process as well?

Call me back, or write another essay, when you're down with that.

Some commenters to his post were buying his line that EU member states’ much stronger safety net already counts as a stimulus. (Note: It does; look at how much The One had on expanded unemployment benefits in his package.)

To those folks, I added this:

Germany, at least, doesn't calculate doesn't calculate unemployment the same way we do. Stop falling for an American right-wing argument. (For example, if you work for a temp agency, in Germany, you're considered unemployed, not employed, like here. Armed forces don't count in employment. And, they don't lock up 1 million or so marginally employable drug users.)

In other words, comparing European and American unemployment rates is comparing apples and baklava.

With just those issues above, if you either add 2 points to US unemployment rates or knock 2 percentage points off the German side, you’re much more accurate.

Needed: more independent thinkers from center to further left on the political spectrum.

And, “less American exceptionalism” from both halves of the two-party duopoly.