debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Al Jazeera’s Inside Story programme has recently discussed the Spanish budget – one of the most austere in the country’s history – and its implications for the country and the Eurozone crisis as a whole. Social Europe Journal author David Lizoain participated in the debate.
The euro area finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen have agreed on the size of the firewall, that is the funds to be made available to the new European Stability Mechanism and the way the funds in the existing European Financial Stability Facility are to be managed; see the eurogroup statement here. They arrive at a [...]
As part of the Basic Values Debate jointly organised by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Social Europe Journal, SEJ Editor Henning Meyer talked to Lord Roger Liddle, Chair of Policy Network, about social democratic basic values and policies. The conversation was recorded at the Policy Network offices on 27th March 2012.
As the Supreme Court shows every sign of throwing out “Obamacare” and leaving 30 million Americans without health insurance, another drama is being played out in the quiet corridors of the Federal Reserve system that may affect even more of us. Taxpayers will be on the hook for another giant Wall Street bailout, and the [...]
Who needs the state? Interventions in the financial sector by governments during the crisis show that it is capitalism that needs the state in order to survive yet again. But the ones the state should serve first and foremost are the people: it should protect them from the excesses of the ‘invisible hand of the market’ and ensure [...]
The paradoxically specular way events present themselves over history is quite frequent. It is the case of Germany nowadays in Europe, in the management of the crisis of Greek debt, and in the EU’s preliminary agreements on fiscal policies. This role appears antithetic to what happened after World War I. On June 28th 1919 the [...]
Social democracy in Europe today is split regarding the role the state should play. Actually social democratic thinking has never been uniform about this question, and our positions have changed over time (including etatist, technological approaches as well as emancipative ideas of civil self-organisation). Concerning Europe we have participated in building our supranational structure with [...]
‘Fair taxation’ is a hot news item these days following Osborne’s March 2012 budget which scrapped the 50p marginal rate on the rich and further shifted the tax burden to the ordinary citizen (with a bit of bad news for ‘grannies’ thrown in). It cannot have escaped the attention of the judicious reader that the [...]
Economics Blogs are an important feature of the US policy debate and the European scene is slowly developing. You might have followed the recent discussion about European economics blogs in particular. The result has basically been: yes, there are a few European economics blogs but they are not very good at linking to each other, i.e. generating a [...]
When most of the EU states pledged at the end of last year to introduce stricter debt limits, where possible incorporating them into the Constitution, this resulted primarily from an acute sense of panic in the face of the continuing escalation of the Euro crisis. For the first time, even the bonds of hitherto unaffected [...]
With Greece obtaining the approval of a majority of private sector investors to renege on part of its debt, policy makers across Europe have been quick in expressing their optimism. We have seen several statements testifying to this such as: ‘the light at the end of the tunnel is now closer than before’/‘the worst of [...]
Progress and Economic growth, argues Daniela Kolbe, are never ends in themselves. Under what conditions is growth good for society? And what kind of growth? A well-designed, intelligent indicator won’t resolve any political conflicts, but it will make for a more objective debate. My home town of Leipzig is the most beautiful city in the [...]
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