Germany sold €4.5bn of two-year government bonds at a record low yield of 0.07 per cent, underscoring the strong demand for safer assets amid fears that Greece could be forced out of the eurozone.
The German Bundesbank said the two-year “Schatz”, which was sold with a zero-coupon for the first time, received bids for €7.7bn, compared to a maximum sales target of €5bn.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks the Consumer Price Index. One of the prices they track is new vehicle costs. THey have data on prices for new cars dating back to 1935. The following is a graph of the price index from 1935 to 2007:

Despite the lack of evidence, it is remarkable how much allegiance the Keynesian approach receives from policy makers and economists. I think it's because the Keynesian model addresses important macroeconomic policy issues and is pedagogically beautiful, no doubt reflecting the genius of Keynes. The basic model—government steps in to spend when others won't—can be presented readily to one's mother, who is then likely to buy the conclusions.

Keynes worshipers' faith in this model has actually been strengthened by the Great Recession and the associated financial crisis. Yet the empirical support for all this is astonishingly thin. The Keynesian model asks one to turn economic common sense on its head in many ways. For instance, more saving is bad because of the resultant drop in consumer demand, and higher productivity is bad because the increased supply of goods tends to lower the price level, thereby raising the real value of debt. Meanwhile, transfer payments that subsidize unemployment are supposed to lower unemployment, and more government spending is good even if it goes to wasteful projects.

It is important to ensure that fiscal adjustment and structural reforms are socially sustainable; to the extent that there is room to mitigate the impact of austerity on growth and employment, this should of course be done – although in some countries the room is limited, or needs to be found by tackling wasteful public expenditures. But it is equally important to recognise where the key structural problems are and to address them. The ambition cannot be simply to go back to the good old days of 30% youth unemployment.