debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Will a reinvigorated European Employment Strategy Be Up To The Job? Through the so called roadmap for a ‘genuine’ Economic Union, Europe is in the process of strengthening its power to intervene in Euro Area member states and to impose flexible labour markets and flexible wages. As described in a previous contribution, this roadmap therefore constitutes a serious [...]
Following the financial crisis of 2007, Eurozone countries have been separated into two large blocks dependent on their capacity to honor their domestic public finance constraints. The predominant view, and that of the EU institutions, is built upon a questionable causation, national fragility and profligacy. Hence, reestablishing credibility and the survival of the common currency [...]
With talk of a Greek exit from the Euro now being treated seriously it can be informative to consider past experiences with monetary union. The normal fate for currency unions has been eventual failure and dissolution, and the history books are full of examples of such failures. By and large having some pre-existing form of [...]
Responding to a piece by Ryan Avent, the noted (and mysterious) German blogger Kantoos asks for help in coming up with ideas about how to reduce Germany’s current account surplus, apart from deregulating services. Let me help him (or her). Germany could go some way to reversing the labour market reforms and the political pressure [...]
Leaving Berlin on Friday after an interesting meeting at the FES and with spring in the air, I had a choice of newspapers for the flight home. I could have read something innocuous in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. There would likely have been something interesting about my favourite German city in the Tagesspiegel. But a seemingly [...]
The euro member states and the European institutions have not yet managed to come up with a convincing plan to surmount the crisis afflicting the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This is due both to a false analysis of the causes and a reluctance to take decisive political measures. A review of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung publications on [...]
The European Council is meeting in Brussels and crucial decisions are expected regarding both crisis resolution and medium-term reform of the euro area. A grand bargain is likely to emerge in which the ECB will do more to backstop euro area governments and reduce their borrowing costs. In return member states, at least in the [...]
Support for the Euro in Sweden is below ten percent and thereby at a historical low point. The opposite is true for the opposition to a Swedish membership in the Euro that is now reaching new highs at 88 percent. This according to an opinion poll conducted by Skop. According to the survey conducted in [...]
I have a piece out on the OpenDemocracy website – which is running an interesting series entitled ‘Can Europe make it?‘ – on whether wage policy can ‘save monetary union’. The short answer is that, given supportive conditions by other policies, enhanced coordination of wage-setting would certainly help. But, even in the unlikely event that [...]
The eurozone is at the center of the global financial crisis, because only there, in the realm of the second most important currency after the dollar, does the crisis hit a weak “structure” rather than a state with real power. It is a structure that is squandering the trust of citizens and markets in its [...]
The possible collapse of the euro threatens the future of social democracy, not only in Europe but also throughout the world. Yet many on the left have silently welcomed the euro crisis because European Monetary Union (EMU) has been seen as a critical part of the neoliberal project that dominated world order over the past [...]
In an interview with the Swedish online magazine Europaportalen.se Tommy Waidelich, the economic policy spokesman for the Swedish Social Democrats, dismisses a Swedish Euro membership for what he calls a “foreseeable future”. When questioned what that means, he replied: “For me it’s my life time, my generation. As long as I am a decision-maker.” At [...]
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