BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  WSJ: Austerity means different things, what’s good and what’s bad austerity? Draghi: In the European context tax rates are high and government expenditure is focused on current expenditure. A “good” consolidation is one where taxes are lower and the lower government expenditure is on infrastructures and other investments. WSJ: Bad austerity?
In this context, let me briefly compare the European stress test with the corresponding stress tests for the United States. One question might be: which of the two is stricter? Well, comparing the strictness of these two stress tests is not that simple.