The New Marshall Plan

What strikingly beautiful weather we have today, with brilliant sunshine, some puffy clouds, and a moderate temperature without humidity. The trees and flowers seem delighted by the light, of which they have seen very little this past week. It is one week since graduation, and the sun appeared only occasionally in that time. What a beautiful day :).

An article in the Suddeutsche Zeitung talked about the development of a "Marshall Plan" for Greece and other debt-ridden countries in the European Union. I probably missed a lot in the article, but I did catch that many believe it will take upwards of 10 to 15 years to "rebuild" those countries especially damaged by the financial crisis. Given that, a long-term plan modelled on the Marshall Plan (named after then Secretary of State George Marshall (1880-1959))  of post-WWII, in which American moneMy (roughly $13 billion over 4 years) was transferred into Europe as a means of rebuilding devastated states while simultaneously stemming the spread of communism. The Plan was hailed as a tremendous success, boosting every economy which received aid above its pre-war levels, and paving the way for closer cooperations among European countries by easing trade barriers.

Given the 10-15 year window which current neo-Marshall Plan planners foresee for their own program, such sweeping success in four years is impressive. It may also highlight major differences between reconstruction in the late 1940s and reconstruction today. The details of such programs are rather beyond me, but the problem is very real. As the article this morning repeatedly mentioned, officials caution that, "It will take more than three years," for the program to realize success. It could be that, while the original Marshall Plan had to rebuild buildings, infrastructure, and the physical necessities of modern society, the new crisis requires, among other things, the rebuilding of financial institutions and the requisite confidence in those institutions to render them effective. High national debt and a failed financial sector mean that many people are crowded out from getting financial resources to start businesses, buy a home, or fund an education. A good economist could tell you more about these things than I can, but it seems clear that the issues a new Marshall Plan will have to confront are different and perhaps more difficult to repair than the perhaps more straightforward destructiveness wrought by the Second World War.

10-15 years could prove a long time to remain committed to fixing another country's economic and political problems. The United States managed to do it for four years in an environment in which the country had just won a huge victory, and stopping communism was a national priority. How will Germans and others remain committed to helping Greece and Portugual in an environment which appears increasingly hostile to the idea of bailing out such states which many believe are responsible in large part for their distress? We shall see.

Have a wonderful day :).