"Inflationists" versus the "austerians"

In his weekly commentary, financial manager and strategist Doug Nolan hashes out the battle between two schools of economic thought:

In this epic battle of inflationists vs. austerians, I’ll place my bets on the superior constructs of the “austerian” analytical framework.  And, as the perennial optimist, I remain hopeful that contemporaneous analysis will at some point help (re-)expose the many flaws and misrepresentations of inflationist ideology. 

And here's just part of what Nolan sees happening in Europe:

At the minimum, doubts are growing in the optimistic view that economic resiliency in China and recovery in the U.S. will counter European weakness.  

There will be important elections this weekend in France and Greece.  Mr. Hollande, the presumptive new Socialist French President, has handled circumstances capably and has somewhat calmed market fears.  Yet his election will signal a decisive leftward lurch in European politics.  The Greek election has the potential to destabilize that nation’s troubled reform efforts.  The political landscape is unusually splintered, with extremist parties making headway.  There is the potential for political chaos pushing forward what seems like Greece’s inevitable exit from the eurozone.

Yesterday, I posted a video clip where comedian and political commentator Bill Maher praised Europe's socialist economies in an mtvU lecture to college students. It still bugs me that, at least as far as the mtvU promo clip showed, neither Maher nor this college audience had a clue how fast and how far Europe is unraveling.

Nolan thinks a lot deeper than Maher does. I usually ignore Maher. Noland I read weekly.