Before/After Post on Summary

Hey guys!

Back then we had to do a summary for Henry, which was about Europe and deflation. It was my first summary of an economic text taken from The Telegraph and, honestly, I was struggling quite bit with it. Thing is that I'm not good understanding texts with economic topics. Even with a decent mind-map it took me quite a while finishing up the summary. The feedback I received from Henry was very good actually. I made some mistakes concerning formality. He also told me that the summary needs more planning. In order to improve my understanding of economic texts and writing style he advised me to read articles from The Economist or the Financial Times at least once a week.

Original Version:

SUMMARY OF Europe already has one foot in ,Japanese‘ deflation grave


Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 analyses the policy errors EU authorities made during the economic crisis in 2008.

Evans-Pritchard believes that although deflation seems harmless in „low-debt“ countries, there is still a very dangerous risk of deflation. This could led to a runaway debt, which the governments will not be able to pay back because it would require constant payments from other EU members. There is of course the option of cutting spending, but this is rather unpopular. A proposed solution would be inflation, because then the economy could experience an upswing due to people taking risks and investing.

Furthermore, it is the case that not every country wants the same solution. While Italy, Spain and Greece would need inflation, Germany is against it. This is mainly because, at the moment, the country‘s economy is stable. However, signs of deflation exist and if the situation gets out of control Europe will suffer the same dilemma as Japan in 2002.

Evans-Pritchard‘s proposed solution is that France, Italy, Spain and Club Med allies should gang up on Germany and convince the rest of the EU states to approve of inflation, which is desperately needed.


200 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING TITLE

Revised Version:

SUMMARY OF Europe already has one foot in 'Japanese' deflation grave


Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 analyses the policy errors EU authorities made during the economic crisis in 2008.

Evans-Pritchard believes that although deflation seems harmless in "low-debt" countries, deflation is still dangerous for countries such as Ireland, Spain and Italy. This could lead to a runaway debt, which the governments will not be able to pay back. For that reason it would require constant payments from other EU members. There is of course the option of cutting spending, but this is rather unpopular. A proposed solution would be inflation, because then the economy could experience an upswing due to people taking risks and investing.

Furthermore, it is the case that not every country wants the same solution. While Italy, Spain and Greece would need inflation, Germany is against it. This is mainly because, at the moment, the country's economy is stable. However, signs of deflation exist and if the situation gets out of control Europe will suffer the same dilemma as Japan in 2002.

Evans-Pritchard's proposed solution is that "Club Med" allies should group against Germany and convince the rest of the EU states to approve inflation, which is desperately needed.


199 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING TITLE