debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
As a general rule, immigration is a good thing for receiving countries regarding their GDP (not GDP per capita!) and overall employment level. But some vulnerable groups are negatively affected in terms of wages and unemployment. Let’s have a closer look at the latter, although this is not an easy task at least for two [...]
Throughout the course of history, there were several so call labour market models in western societies: the United States, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and more recently Germany and, maybe, Austria. In terms of a well functioning labour market, most of them were successful for a certain period in history but failed in others. Look at [...]
The last crisis has merely amplified what is an increasingly problematic structural issue in France: Youth unemployment. In the last 30 years, the youth unemployment rate has never dropped below 15% and has regularly exceeded 20%. Yet, integrating young people into the labour market has been an ongoing public policy objective since the end of [...]
The French electoral campaign has been widely read across Europe as a fight between the candidate of austerity and the candidate of growth, as much as these interpretational categories have been used to describe the frictions between Hollande and Merkel, exacerbated during the latest European Council summit. But this debate is misplaced, gives rise to [...]
The economic and social consequences of lopsided policies focussed on lowering expenditure are fatal. Europe is threatening to fall apart as a result. Instead of the European crisis easing, it has worsened over the past two years and the credit risks which Germany is shouldering have not shrunk, but have grown significantly. The crisis from which [...]
Europe is debilitated with the effects of two years of desperate crisis management. The prescribed treatment resembles the old practice of bloodletting on ailing patients. Growing debts are paid with more loans, and new loans are made dependent on increasingly severe austerity measures. The results are a greater risk of recession, higher interest rates on [...]
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos a few days ago, said the “critical risks” facing the American economy this year were a worsening of Europe’s chronic sovereign debt crisis and a rise in tensions with Iran that could stoke global oil prices. What about jobs and wages here at [...]
It is now increasingly clear that what started in late 2008 is no ordinary economic slump. Almost four years after the beginning of the crisis, developed economies have not managed a sustainable recovery, and even the better-off countries reveal signs of weakness. Faced with the certainty of a double-dip recession, Europe’s difficulties are daunting. Not [...]
Dean Baker counters American National Public Radio attacks on France’s 35-hour week and in doing so gives me an opportunity to write about something other than the interminable euro area crisis (and reflect on whether I shouldn’t try to leave the office at a reasonable hour tonight). Dean is right. Those asserting that the working [...]
In the last thirty years, the share of manufacturing in total world GDP has decreased. Simultaneously, there has been a fall in relative and absolute manufacturing employment in the Western world. This structural change is defined as deindustrialization and started in the US at the beginning of the 1960′s. Since then, almost all rich countries [...]
As the economic slump that began in 2007 persists, the question on everyone’s minds is obvious: Why? Unless we have a better understanding of the causes of the crisis, we can’t implement an effective recovery strategy. And, so far, we have neither. We were told that this was a financial crisis, so governments on both [...]
Two cheers for the President and his America’s Jobs Act. Cheer Number One: In presenting it to a joint session of Congress, he sounded as passionate and determined as he’s ever sounded. Second cheer: He laid out the problem correctly and effectively. He explained why jobs and growth must be the nation’s first priority now [...]
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