Europe's Mixed Crisis Policy: A Step Towards A More Sustainable Future?

Amid growing concerns about the Eu­rozone woes which outside Europe are widely perceived as the main risk for the global economy of the second half of 2012, the 25th of May 2012 news that Europe’s biggest crisis nation Italy now starts pursuing a new approach by „com­bining“ „austerity“ with „growth“ politics into a „mixed“ debt crisis management is raising dubious responses by Euro­pean taxpayers and international policy makers. At least among worried citizens in Continental Europe, but also in Asia and the USA, this course change is seen rather sceptically – in particular by many Europeans who fear that their sacrifices in the framework of existing „austerity“ politics may be vanished by new govern­mental incentive spending. Will the new „mixed“ approach result to be progress towards a more balanced crisis manage­ment – or a confirmation of the insecure outcome of European efforts to convince the markets that problems are tackled in a clear and sustainable way?