"From the outset they have come up against a concrete wall," said Hatzis, adding that the anti-austerity movement believed it would have much wider backing in its quest to dismantle Germany's obsession with policies of economic rectitude.
But despite their policies of fiscal rectitude, controlled inflation and restrained spending, and the praise heaped upon them from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the investment has not been forthcoming.
But Italy, perhaps because its overall debt level was already so high and its population was older, pursued a policy of greater fiscal rectitude than its neighbors and avoided a real estate bubble.
Most African governments, moreover, have adopted promising economic policies: sound money, fiscal rectitude and the encouragement of private business are their mantras.
Where Republicans once were the party of fiscal rectitude, foreign-policy prudence, and sound government, they are now associated with deficits, recklessness, maladministration, and scandal.
Intergenerational equity rolls off the tongue with a satisfying sound of moral rectitude, but this policy premise needs a full and articulate public hearing by informed citizens.
But, in times of crisis, other policies may succeed where pure rectitude can't.
It happens through political calculation (Mr. Gore needed Mr. Lieberman's reputation for moral rectitude) and through policies like affirmative action; an imperfect tool, but one at least aimed at inclusion.
PERHAPS I'm showing my age (50 next month), but it seems like only yesterday that the Democratic Party wholeheartedly championed government stimulus as necessary to promote economic growth, while Republicans backed fiscal rectitude as the best policy to ensure a healthy economy.
Just as obnoxious as the fraud of liberty was the fraud of Christian piety, a finger-jabbing rectitude incapable of asserting a policy without invoking the Deity as a co-sponsor.
