Oh wait, now we’re going to have a diversion into a discussion about the middle east maps, expulsions and blood-and-soil links to G-d. Just kidding …

I guess your argument is the territorial changes after world war two are/were appropriate to make the peace in 1945 and shouldn’t be re-opened? I don’t have too much knowledge of the german territories, but something about the Soviet Union keeping territories taken from Poland, Finland and Japan seem harder to justify. I’m sure nationalist groups can bring up these wrongs for all sorts of bad reasons, but doesn’t change the fact that Poland especially seems screwed by the territorial consessions of world war two …

Thing about Wrocław is that it’s mostly descendants of folks from current day Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania (like my folks) who themselves were expelled by the Soviets (apparently back in the 50’s “Ukrainiec” used to be slang for Wrocławians) so they tend to have little patience for German irredentist claims.

Through an aunt’s marriage we’re actually connected to some Silesian Germans that barely slipped the post war expulsions from Katowice/Kattowitz (now THAT is an ugly city) area. The older folks still speak German at home and they got the black eagle hanging in their living room right next to the white one.

What are some of the regular Vertriebene groups? I’m genuinely interested because all you hear about is BdV

There are lots of them. They’re frequently called something like Landsmannschaft X, where X is some town or village or valley or district in formerly German parts where the members (or often, by this point, their parents or even grandparents) came from. You don’t hear much about them because they are typically local, low-key, and interested primarily in things like traditional costume, songs, folk dances etc.

Mind you, I’m sure there’s some degree of overlap between these groups and the Steinbach sort of thing, and the overlap was probably bigger 30 or 40 years ago. But a lot of the Vertriebene just aren’t like tat. I am related by marriage to some people expelled from Breslau, as it then was. The generation who were adults at the time of the expulsions did sometimes go to Fests thrown by Landsmannschaften, but on the political front (although deeply saddened at having to leave their city) managed to see the whole thing in perspective, given what had gone before. The generation who were kids at the time really couldn’t give a monkey’s—as far as they’re concerned, they’re Swabians (and can’t utter a syllable without audibly confirming the fact). Still, they have gone back to visit Wrocław, and they rave about it.

So do all the Poles I know, for that matter. It must be a bit of a jewel. Sadly, my visits to Poland haven’t yet brought me outside of Warsaw. My Warsovian friends are all apologetic because they think their city so ugly. “Relax, dudes,” I always tell them; “I live in Frankfurt“.

many are quite annoyed by Erika Steinbach and her antics

Many on this side of the Oder-Neisse line are quite annoyed by her as well. Thus does Europe grow into ever closer union, I suppose.

BTW, lest readers unfamiliar with these groups get the wrong idea, in my comment upthread I did not mean to tar all Vertriebene organisations with the same brush. There are many that seek nothing more than to preserve the folkways of their former homelands. Nothing objectionable about that, and these groups have always enjoyed the support of German governments regardless of ideology; quite properly so, just as the state sponsors efforts to preserve the Slavic (Sorbian/Wendish) culture of the Lausitz region. Ms Steinbach and her ilk, by contrast, feed (and feed on) an ugly sort of resentful nationalism with strong blood-and-soil undertones and a mental map Germany that hasn’t been current since 1945. Most of the expellees are dead by now, of course. (Steinbach herself, though born in former German territory in the East, could not possibly have actual memories of the place.) But expellee irredentism survives, to the extent that it does, because the Union finds it a useful tool for attracting votes from the more troglodytic portion of the populace, and because the functionries of certain expellee groups find it a useful tool for extracting subventions from Union-led governments.

a satirical article … discussing the high rates of alcoholism in the Russian army and the high rates of declared pacifism among conscription-age German males

Straight reporting of the facts doing double-duty as satire? Now, that’s efficiency.

In 2008-09, Fed rates were as low as they could go. The lever of the standard monetary policy mechanism was pushed to the lower limit – the opposite of the situation in 1982.

It’s like whether a fire is dying due to lack of fuel, or too little air. The cures are quite different.

Mrs. Tilton is pretty much right in 23 on the situation in Poland. Nobody thinks there’s gonna be a war or anything, though many are quite annoyed by Erika Steinbach and her antics. In fact more or less recently, there was a satirical article on the front page of one of the dailies, entitled something like “We’re Safe Now” discussing the high rates of alcoholism in the Russian army and the high rates of declared pacifism among conscription-age German males.

Becker asks a legitimate question – why is this recession causing a shift in the ideological make up of the profession but the previous major recession didn’t. Krugman supplies (a plausible) answer. What’s the big deal? Barry’s really really stretching this here, same as with Feldstein.

And Krugman.

FWIW, I remember Feldstein had a critical analysis of the planned euro in The Economist. Quite sensible piece based on optimal currency area considerations and comparisons with the US as a currency area. The conclusion was that a common currency was not economically beneficial, and so the reason for opting for it must be perceived political gains. Which precisely turned the then prevailing line of pro-euro argumentation on its head.

(Other than that, and speaking as a European, I can confirm that any suggestions of inter-European war over currency issues are indeed utterly nonsensical and will be thus perceived by everybody here in Old Europe).

And you’re missing the point, that a single data point, of what possibly – very likely was – an honest mistake does not constitute a “record of dishonesty” no matter for how long and how tediously some people keep harping on that one data point.

You can’t bootstrap a single observation no matter how hard you try.

Was anybody saying that war in europe was impossible? I thought the issue was that the reasoning in Feldstein’s FA article was at best naive, if not inane.

“@Barry – fail to see how Becker “flunks Econ 101.” He asks a legitimate question, Krugman supplies an answer.”

Becker asked a rhetorical question on a blog, and didn’t provide an answer. Perhaps I missed the link Becker provided to Krugman’s blog, or to an explanation.

I went back and checked, just to make sure – nope, no such link, nor any trackback to Krugman’s blog.

Let me help you here – if a speaker asks a rhetorical question, and wants the answer to be provided, then either the speaker provides it, or the speaker calls on somebody in the audience to answer it (note – this doesn’t always work as tidily as it does in movies and on TV). Unless the answer is so obvious that answering it would waste time, the speaker does not ask it, and leave it hanging.

Becker was trying to deceive people, and got called on it.