With regard to measures stabilising the global economy, one aspect that is too often overlooked is the fact that due to the sharp contraction in net exports since summer 2008 the German economy is de facto stabilising the global economy. A decline in net exports means that less income from global trade flows is absorbed by Germany.
Then, by definition, in some other countries net exports must rise, de facto stabilising production in those economies. 2.4  Longer-term lessons for monetary policy  Let me turn finally to what are more longer-term lessons for monetary policy to be drawn from the current crisis.