Tag archive for ‘economic crisis’
Has Angela Merkel outlived her usefulness?
Steven Hill’s recent paean to Angela Merkel on the SEJ website (18/08/10) may yet prove woefully ill-advised. For although he is correct in arguing that ‘social’ Germany is well ahead of the USA is many respects, his endorsement of Merkel’s economics is—to put it as politely as possible—somewhat overenthusiastic.
European Collective Bargaining Coordination in the Metal and Electronic Industries during the Economic Crisis
Austerity measures from various European Governments in the midst of the deepest economic crisis of the last 80 years include drastic wage cuts for employees. Could this mark the end of coordinated collective bargaining of European Trade Unions? Prior to the introduction of European monetary union, from the mid 90s the European trade unions had [...]
The Market Confidence Bugaboo
A specter is haunting Europe – the spectre of “market confidence.” It may have been fear of communism that agitated governments when Karl Marx penned the opening line of his famous manifesto in 1848, but today it is the dread that market sentiment will turn against them and drive up the spreads on their government’s [...]
Economic Crisis Provides Opportunity for Greater ‘Europeanisation’ of Defence Spending
As governments outdo each other to cut their budgets, one area that ought to be ripe for pruning is defence. After all, the combined EU member states defence spending is 200 billion euros, the second largest in the world after the USA. Room then, one would think, for big savings. Naturally, defence is a very [...]
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 End of Social Europe?
As a further round of economic crisis unfolds, many European social democrats seem frozen like a hare in a car’s headlights. They have nothing new to say about how to deal with fiscal deficits – except that the cuts must not occur all at once and that the most vulnerable must be shielded. Otherwise, economists [...]
The Greek Crisis is a ticking Social Bomb
The Greek crisis is not merely economic: behind the numbers are people, most of whom bear no responsibility for the economic mess they have ended up with. Manintaining social cohesion as poverty and unemployment levels rise ought to be a policy priority.
Markets, Sustainability and the End of Politics
Within a capitalist economy there is always a settlement between the interests of capital and the interests of labour. As Shelley reminded English workers nearly 200 years ago in his poem ‘The Mask of Anarchy’, the greatest power always rests in the hands of labour since ‘Ye are many – they are few’. Under a [...]
Europe at the Crossroads: It’s Now or Never!
The European Union is one of the grandest projects in human history – the creation of a new economic, and eventually social, super-state out of the ashes of post-war despair. The founders had a cunning plan: They would create an economic imperative around the production of essentials such as coal and steel, convinced that a [...]
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
In 2002 I published an article on a maximum wage in the centre-left theory journal Renewal. The idea of putting a ceiling on what people could earn was left-field, to say the least. It was more a thought experiment than a serious attempt to influence political debate. The article and the idea sank without much [...]
The Future of Social Democracy: A Spanish Vision
To solve our current problems realist and practical policies are required, but they must also always retain a social-democratic ethos. The European election of July 2009 showed an interesting paradox: despite the fact that, according to data from the European Election Study (1986-2004), 58 per cent of European citizens position themselves as centre-left or left, [...]
The Credibility Gap
Faith in politics is on the wane – particularly in social-democratic politics. The search for reasons for the disastrous defeat of the German social democrats in the September elections, and the poor prospects of parties of the left across Europe, has led to various and detailed explanations. Most of these are right in some respect, [...]
