Andrew Watt
Andrew Watt is senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute, where he coordinates research on economic, employment and social policies. He edits the ETUI Policy Brief on economic and employment policy, coordinates the European Labour Network for Economic Policy, and writes a column for the Social Europe Journal. He has worked as a consultant/adviser to the European Commission, Eurofound, and the European Economic and Social Committee.
If they’re right, then they’re wrong
At the ECB rate-setting meeting today ECB President Trichet announced more optimistic growth forecasts. The GDP growth forecast (formally a ‘projection’, based on unchanged monetary policy) is for between 1.4% and 1.8% for this year, and between 0.5% and 2.3% next year. Meanwhile annual HICP inflation is projected to be in a range between 1.5% [...]
Industry gets its way – who will pay?
A seemingly arcane piece* in the back section of today’s Financial Times reports that industrial companies are to be exempted from planned European rules requiring them to use clearing houses for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trades after ‘months of lobbying’ by, surprise!, industrial companies. They have argued that such a requirement would be hugely costly, ‘possibly [...]
Eat the poor – Germany’s austerity package
Today the German government passed key measures in its austerity package first announced back in June. The stated aim is to ensure compliance with the bizarre new constitutional clause – the so-called debt-brake – requiring a balanced (structural) budget by 2016 at the latest and to get below the Maastricht 3% deficit limit by 2013. [...]
Unemployment: a chink of light and a huge challenge
Eurostat has just issued the unemployment numbers (which are seasonally adjusted) for July. They show that euro area unemployment fell for the first time since the Great Financial Crisis hit, albeit by a paltry 8000 persons. If this marks the start of a trend, and that is uncertain, then the ‘jobs recession’ in the euro [...]
Two Men in a (Jackson) Hole – and One is still digging
There has been considerable coverage of Ben Bernanke’s speech to the annual central bankers’ bash at Jackson Hole on Friday. A number of US commentators have criticised his reticence to commit to more decisive stimulus (Paul Krugman, Dean Baker); the Financial Times called it ‘vapid’. There was much less coverage of ECB President Trichet’s address [...]
Right cause, wrong ground
Nine EU countries – eight from central and eastern Europe plus Sweden – have formally called on the European Commission to change the budget accounting rules in a way that would allow them to run higher deficits in the coming years without running foul of the Stability and Growth Pact. As argued in the last [...]
‘Market jitters’ confirm need for continued stimulus in Europe
Today’s Financial Times reports that growing fears about growth prospects led to sharp falls in commodities and equities yesterday, and drove interest rates on government bonds to historic lows. This will come as a – hopefully salutary – shock to those who had sought to talk up Europe’s growth spurt in the second quarter: this [...]
Economic Governance in Europe: A Change of Course only after ramming the Ice
The European Commission recently announced proposals to enhance economic policy coordination and strengthen EU economic governance (here). They start from the right premise: ‘the crisis has shown that they [economic policy coordination instruments] have not been used to the full and that there are gaps in the current governance system’. Concrete measures are proposed, all [...]
The ECB is not doing its Job – Even on its own Definition
The mandate of the European Central Bank has been a source of controversy since before the start of monetary union in 1999. A battle raged between those who wanted to focus exclusively on ‘price stability’ and those arguing for a broader mandate, taking in growth and employment on a formally equal footing, as is the [...]
Europe’s Policymakers are rushing towards the Edge of the Cliff
Lemmings are cute, family-oriented, apparently well-adjusted creatures who, most of the time, live more or less happily in the tundra. Although it is an urban myth that they commit collective suicide to control population, they certainly experience periodic mass frenzies. Driven by some deeply rooted instinctive yearning, they swarm off in search of salvation, looking [...]
It Should Come Automatically: European Coordination to Strengthen the Automatic Stabilisers
In order to bring about a needed strengthening of the automatic fiscal stabilisers in Europe, the open method of coordination should be utilised. In an extension of existing fiscal supervision, member states should be induced to hit benchmarks for stronger automatic stabilisers. This would not require significant institutional reform and, unlike the Stability and Growth [...]
The EU2020 Strategy and Europe’s Crisis – First Ensure the Survival of the EU!
Angela Merkel may have got just about everything else wrong, but she was right to tell the German parliament that urgent action is needed to save the euro area, otherwise the future of Europe is at stake. Europe’s reaction to the sovereign debt crisis has been an almost unmitigated disaster – denial, delay and dithering [...]
