debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Clement Attlee’s Labour Party established the NHS in a country devastated by war. Leon Blum’s Popular Front government managed to institute the 40-hour week and paid holidays during the Great Depression. Felipe Gonzalez’s PSOE built Spain’s social safety net during times of scarcity. Difficult economic circumstances are not a valid excuse for programmatic timidity on [...]
When the economic crisis broke following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and the global banking system seized up, workers began to be laid off, families saw their houses repossessed and banks teetered on the brink of collapse. Financial panic knew no frontiers. It was clear that a coordinated global response by governments [...]
The economic crisis has meant harsh austerity in a number of EU states. But even those that retain relatively sound macroeconomic fundamentals have engaged in belt-tightening wary of market reactions and rising spreads. The political economy of the EU is displaying worrying signs of decay, as Europe’s socio-economic model is undermined through strategies of fiscal [...]
The debate on Europe‘s future has become lop-sided. The fascinating idea of European integration, of finding a peaceful and cooperative order on a continent torn apart by wars and conflicts has deteriorated. We are left with a narrow-minded discussion on sovereign debt and its impact on interest rates and monetary stability. Developing a stable democratic [...]
While European countries argue about bank recapitalisation and the US authorities worry that we may fail to avert a meltdown, a key principle should be borne in mind. Recapitalising the banks is not enough. What needed to escape recession is a great surge of consumer demand. Just as a rocket needs a lot of fuel [...]
As a child, I once got lost in a maze. I could see where I had to get to, but try as I might, I could not get there. Indeed, the harder I tried, the more lost I became. The current situation in the EU feels a lot like that experience. The harder we try [...]
One of the calumnies of liberal/conservative commentators and politicians, and some mainstream economists, when the financial crisis broke in 2007/2008 was that it was all the fault of – you guessed it – government. Central banks had kept interest rates too low and blown up asset bubbles. Public institutions like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, [...]
Could the financial crisis of 2007-2008 happen again? Since the crisis erupted, there has been no shortage of opportunities – in the form of inadequate conclusions and decisions by officials – to nurture one’s anxiety about that prospect. Over the course of the three G-20 summits held since the crisis, world leaders have agreed to [...]
In trying to understand the pattern and timing of government interventions during a financial crisis, we should probably conclude that, to paraphrase the French philosopher Blaise Pascal, “politics have incentives that economics cannot understand.” From an economic point of view, the problem is simple. When a sovereign borrower’s solvency has deteriorated sufficiently, its survival [...]
The least one can say is that at least the EU Ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday 21 July took decisions to avert immediate crisis as the Vox EU letter from 13 economists asked.[1] The package seems to have been somewhat grudgingly accepted by the markets. The aim of the exercise was only in part [...]
As growth is edging timidly forward in most of Europe, attention is increasingly turned to the state of labour markets and, especially, the high levels of unemployment and lack of job creation. Governments and social partners are in search of policies able to promote dynamic job creation and thereby bring down unemployment. In this context, [...]
The social conflict in Europe has intensified strongly over the past couple of years, in the wake of the financial crisis. The labour and trade union movement has been on the defensive ever since the neoliberal offensive started around 1980. The balance of power in our societies has thus shifted enormously over the past 30 [...]
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