debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Every year, millions of people die from preventable and treatable diseases, especially in poor countries. In many cases, lifesaving medicines can be cheaply mass-produced, but are sold at prices that block access to those who need them. And many die simply because there are no cures or vaccines, because so little of the world’s valuable [...]
This crisis has been good for Germany. Unemployment is at its lowest level since unification, real wages are going up after a decade of stagnation, up to now exports are booming, tax revenues are plentiful, and hence a public deficit of just 1% – well below the Maastricht criteria – was possible without any major [...]
On my desk right now are reporter Timothy Noah’s new book The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do about It and Milton and Rose Director Friedman’s classic Free to Choose: A Personal Statement. Considering them together, my overwhelming thought is that the Friedmans would find their task of justifying and advocating small-government libertarianism [...]
On the Rajan hypothesis and toxic theories of consumption The notion that inequality is causally related to the Great Recession of 2008 is currently one of the hottest topics in macroeconomics (see http://www.social-europe.eu/2012/04/the-impact-of-inequality-and-macroeconomics/). Before the crisis, most economists were hardly interested in the links between the distribution of income and financial stability. Although the higher [...]
Along with many others I believed that the economic and financial crisis that manifested itself in 2008 and 2009, however great the hardship it immediately caused, would usher in a more progressive politics across Europe. This proved overoptimistic, however. Instead Europe was swept by a new wave of neoliberalism that, far from being cowed by [...]
The hypothesis of expansionary fiscal contraction dates back to the early 1990s. According to this hypothesis austerity might have expansionary effects in cases where households trust government efforts and think that today’s sacrifices will translate into tax reductions in the future. These expectations on their future disposable income might induce them to increase consumption and [...]
Nearly four years after the start of the global financial crisis, many are wondering why economic recovery is taking so long. Indeed, its sluggishness has confounded even the experts. According to the International Monetary Fund, the world economy should have grown by 4.4% in 2011, and should grow by 4.5% in 2012. In fact, the [...]
This is the second generation of people who can’t imagine change except in their own lives, who have no sense of social collective public goods or services, who are just isolated individuals desperately striving to better themselves above everybody else.” [Tony Judt, quoted in Ed Pilkington, ‘A bunch of dead muscles, thinking’ The Guardian, 9 [...]
Another melancholy look back at 2011. It brought Germany strong growth, rising employment, falling unemployment and lower national deficits. It could have been called a good year had it not also been the year when the Euro started to falter. Thus in 2012 we will either come up against the brick wall of a failed [...]
Simon Wren-Lewis has another very good blog post, this time on the very weak case for demanding fiscal austerity right now, even if you believe fiscal consolidation is needed in the long run. I want to tie this together with Brad DeLong’s preview of DeLong-Summers on fiscal policy in a liquidity trap. What Wren-Lewis says, and Delong-Summers argue [...]
In a few short weeks I shall be discussing the ‘Future of Europe’ in a panel comprising distinguished commentators including George Soros. In preparation, I decided to take a closer look at Soros’ latest proposals for the eurozone. Here are some preliminary thoughts emanating from these proposals which I also compare and contrast to our Modest Proposal. [...]
The stupidest parlour game in Spain consists of predicting how long our crisis will last, as if the country were predisposed to tolerate an unemployment rate above 20% for another decade. We are not witnessing an ordinary stagnation, in the vein of Japan’s lost decade, but rather a prolonged emergency. The terrible crisis on Europe’s [...]
SocialEurope Journal: SEJ Article: A Breakthrough Opportunity for Global Health http://t.co/VYXi6Wag SocialEurope Journal: SEJ Article: When Neo-Liberals drop their Mask http://t.co/saAJbUZH SocialEurope Journal: SEJ Article: At least nine EU countries in recession: stimulus urgently needed http://t.co/oNN0v98l SocialEurope Journal: SEJ Article: European Monetary Union: Doomed to fail or just another Stepping Stone? http://t.co/pMuqDvkA SocialEurope Journal: SEJ Article: Creating Jobs in recession-hit Communities in Europe: Why Microcredit will not help http://t.co/zJb4XxJl SocialEurope Journal: SEJ Article: German State Elections send Merkel an Economic Message http://t.co/yVG4Xr5n SocialEurope Journal: SEJ Article: Two dangerous Myths about a 'Grexit' http://t.co/vOhdnVIp SocialEurope Journal: SEJ Article: Finding a Way out of the Crisis – Growth and Employment in Europe http://t.co/Q8JhRRSg 
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