debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Some claims made for economic austerity policies are so prima facie absurd that no one would believe them, making it a waste of time to point out the absurdity. Or so I thought, and wrong I was. The suggestion that a near-miracle recovery occurred in Latvia, and that this extraordinary reversal from bust to boom [...]
Last week The Guardian reported that the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, cautioned David Cameron about stigmatizing immigrants from other European countries as taking excessive and gratuitous advantage of British public services (Guardian, 25 March 2013). In an article in the right-wing Sun newspaper on the same day, the Prime [...]
The overwhelming majority of Italian voters resoundingly rejected the politics and economics of austerity. This judgment by Italian voters is unlikely to meet with the approval of Troika of the eurozone. On the contrary, already we have calls for the new government to reject the popular will and continue those anti-social policies that Signore Monti [...]
In a recent talk in London Peer Steinbrück, the SPD candidate for the German Chancellorship, in an otherwise progressive talk referred to Ireland as the “star pupil” among the countries struggling to recover from the disastrous Europe crisis. This comment goes along with frequent reference in the media to Ireland’s “success” compared to the other crisis [...]
When I grew up in Texas, a common saying was “free advice is worth what it costs you”. The recent eBook, Towards a European Growth Strategy, represents a clear exception to that rule, and offers a welcome opportunity to open fruitful debate on economic policy in Europe. Consistent with the intent of that study, and [...]
In less than two months we come to the eightieth anniversary of the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the thirty-second president of the United States (4 March 1933). With some confidence I predict that the anniversary will be celebrated by very few in the United States and only noted in passing by President Obama [...]
For almost three years the focus of discussion and policy action in the European Union, and especially the so-called euro zone, has been unrelentingly reactionary, bank bailouts, budget cuts, contracting economies and growing unemployment. Such depressing news and reactionary politics have driven many, myself included, to doubt the wisdom of ever having started down this [...]
No Relief for Greece There is a famous joke about Stalin and Trotsky, in which sometime in the early 1930s, the former receives a telegram from the latter with the message “I should congratulate you. You have built socialism.” Overjoyed, Stalin calls in an advisor to show evidence of the great traitor’s recantation. The advisor [...]
The Ideology of Balancing Budgets With the presidential election in the rearview mirror, a so-called fiscal cliff allegedly threatens disaster for the US economy. The time has come to drive a stake through the ideology of the budget cuts, not only in the United States but also Europe. This ideology draws great support from the [...]
The sharp debate over the ongoing crisis of the euro zone has to a great extent driven protagonists into two camps. In what might be called the “official camp”, we find those who support the common currency project and with it policies of fiscal austerity. In the other, the “camp of the critics”, are those [...]
A general principle of the Age of Enlightenment is that people shall chose those who govern them through a democratic process. Franklin D Roosevelt, the greatest US president after Lincoln, summarized this principle: Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are [...]
During the decades immediately following the Second World War, macroeconomic policy operated within an analytical consensus in Europe and North America. Central banks used monetary policy to maintain positive and low real interest rates, and to support fiscal policy. Fiscal policy played a dual role, providing output and employment stability over the economic cycle, and [...]
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