debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
In the ongoing Euro-crisis, our political leaders are constantly criticised for “playing catch-up” and not being “ahead of the curve” (although others might feel that they are completely round the bend). Perhaps, therefore, it is time to look up from the turmoil in the sovereign bond markets and the counsels of the European Union, dust [...]
This year, the Global Footprint Network has declared September 27th as “World Overshoot Day”. It was only September, yet all of the Earth’s natural resources for the year had already been used up. Our planet’s clock is ticking. Today, we are using 1.5 times the amount the planet has to offer. But, there remain people [...]
A year ago, German growth was buoyant and the Eurozone (EZ) seemed firmly on the path to economic recovery from the 2008 recession. One economist at the ING group in Brussels announced triumphantly “Superman is wearing black, red and gold this year, Germany’s national colours”. [1] That has now totally changed. According to last week’s [...]
Going green is not enough for social democrats to keep up the spirit of change and progress. Although social democrats are suffering from the mismanagement of the economic crisis in many European countries we should make no mistake. Social democrats have lost the confidence of their voters not because they have done too much but [...]
Finally: we are all Greece! OK, not quite. But the news that Germany was unable to sell one third of the new government bonds it sought to auction today is a worrying sign. ‘Investors boycott German government bonds!’ screamed the Handelsblatt headline. Has Germany joined the periphery, too? Has the core melted? What has happened, [...]
You’ve been seeing this across the country … Americans assaulted, clubbed, dragged, pepper-sprayed … Why? For exercising their right to free speech and assembly — protesting the increasing concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the top. And what’s Washington’s response? Nothing. In fact, Congress’s so-called “supercommittee” just disbanded because Republicans refuse to raise [...]
In an op-ed published recently in the Financial Times, Jean-Claude Piris, the former chief lawyer for the EU Council of Ministers, warned that the present institutional set-up of the EU is “no longer tenable” and called for a two-speed Europe. Coming as it did from a former top-ranking EU official, from one of its founding member states [...]
Environmentalism is the tree that grew in the shade. When the modern environmental movement first flowered in the early 1970s, its intellectual genesis was soon overshadowed by a profound convulsion in the political economies of western democracies. The breakdown of the Keynesian consensus ushered in a much more free-market variant of capitalism – ironically, at [...]
A country faces an economic and political abyss; the government is on the brink of bankruptcy and pursues fierce austerity policies: public employees take huge pay cuts and taxes are drastically increased; the economy slumps and unemployment rates explode; people fight each other on the street while banks collapse and international capital flees the country. [...]
An interview I gave Monocle’s daily radio programme last week… On the Eurozone Crisis – Monocle 24 – 14th November 2011 by Henning Meyer
Economics is at the start of a revolution that is traceable to an unexpected source: medical schools and their research facilities. Neuroscience – the science of how the brain, that physical organ inside one’s head, really works – is beginning to change the way we think about how people make decisions. These findings will inevitably [...]
It sometimes appears that politicians’ concerns about global warming overheating is inversely proportional to scientists’ fears. Even committed political players appear increasingly resigned to largely letting things run their course. They do so even though there are veritable doomsday scenarios associated with global warming, and even the more standard scientific fare predicts a significant decline [...]
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