Deutsche: Only One Person Can Save Euro, but He Died Long Ago

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accrued to fund wars. That is not a scenario we think is likely! So there we have it; the reality suggests that inflation risks are more contained than many fear. Japan after more than 20 years in weak growth and deflation has finally overcome its aversion to inflation and is enacting a radical policy of reflation. The yen will be the biggest casualty of its new policy, but Japan also provides the example of a country traumatised by an earlier experience of hyperinflation can implement the wrong policies for a sustained period of time.

Pact With the Devil

What about the long-term outcome for the global economy? Will good times ever return? For that, we have to return to Goethe. Ralph Emerson, the eminent 19th century philosopher and champion of individualism, described six of the greatest men in history in his work “Representative Men”

10 . The six men included Plato (the Philosopher), Shakespeare (the Poet), Napoleon (the Man of the World) and of course Goethe (the Writer)

11. I think Goethe’s play “Faust” could provide the answer to my questions

12. In Part One of the play, Mephistopheles, the devil, makes a bet with God that he can divert God’s favourite subject, Faust, from pursuing the highest truth. Up until this point, Faust has exhausted his studies, pursued magic and even contemplated suicide in his pursuit of truth. Enter Mephistopheles who makes a bargain with Faust that he will do whatever Faust asks of him, but in return Faust will serve him in hell. Faust’ side of the bargain is that if he (Faust) experiences a moment that he wishes to remain in forever, he will die at that instant.

After this bargain, Faust pursues love with the help of Mephistopheles. Faust seduces Gretchen13, but things turn awry as she becomes pregnant and drowns her illegitimate child. She ends up being sentenced to death. In Part Two, Faust and Mephistopheles are in the imperial court. There Mephistopheles persuades the Emperor to introduce paper money to replace gold and enrich the empire. Faust then pursues and marries the beautiful Helen of Troy, only for the death of their son to result in her disappearing.

It’s the Intention In the End

At the end of Part Two, an elderly Faust, who controls land reclaimed from the sea, complains to Mephistopheles that an old couple’s hut is ruining his view. Mephistopheles is ordered to remove them, but kills them instead. Upon hearing this, Faust becomes despondent and is blinded by an angel. He sees within himself that he has will. With that, he wishes to drain the marshes of his land to provide a place for people to be free and happy. With that thought, he is in his moment of bliss and dies.

Mephistopheles thinks he has won his bargain, but angels come down to takes Faust’s soul to heaven. It would appear his deeds were enough to reach eternal truth. Reducing the play to simple terms, it would appear that if the intention is to do good for others, then the reward is heaven. That is even the case if one has made a pact with the devil! So with the US’s intention to reduce unemployment, the Euro-area’s to build a stronger union and China’s to rebalance, the ending should be a happy one, even if the journey is bumpy!

H/T Matthew Boesler

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The post above is drafted by the collaboration of the Hedge Fund Alpha Team.

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