debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
The current approach to fiscal austerity measures as a means of resolving the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis is widely regarded as ineffective. Economies, most notably in Southern Europe, undergoing the pain of fiscal austerity measures have not seen a significant reduction in long run borrowing costs (as measured by 10-year interest rates). Attaining the latter [...]
The ECB has indeed intervened today to buy Spanish and Italian bonds – or for all I know merely announced that it would do so – and, voila, the interest rates on these governments’ debt demanded by ‘the markets’ have fallen by between half and one percentage point. Let me put that in perspective. For [...]
Olli Rehn, Economy and Finance Commissioner, has described the plunging equity and bond markets of recent days as “unjustified” and “incomprehensible”. I beg to differ. Of course, such panic attacks always have something seemingly irrational about them: the herd suddenly changes direction, there is a lot of dust, and when it settles the ground is [...]
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