I was interviewed about the recent European GDP figures by CCTV America recently. This is what I had to say.
What Does The ECB Think It Is Doing?
05/04/2013 by
Or rather, why isn’t it doing something? Consumer price inflation is currently 1.7%. The OECD expects 1.6% as a whole for 2013, and 1.2% for 2014. The ECB sees downside risks due to the impact from lower activity, which it acknowledges is falling but which it hopes will recover soon. The OECD expects GDP to [...]
Panic-driven Austerity In The Eurozone And Its Implications
25/02/2013 by
Eurozone policy seems driven by market sentiment. This column argues that fear and panic led to excessive, and possibly self-defeating, austerity in the south while failing to induce offsetting stimulus in the north. The resulting deflation bias produced the double-dip recession and perhaps more dire consequences. As it becomes obvious that austerity produces unnecessary suffering, [...]
GDP as a Measure of Well-Being
04/12/2012 by
Watch Jean Lambert, MEP for the UK Green Party, discuss GDP as a measures of well-being. This talk was recorded at the conference ‘From (un)economic growth to future well-being’ organised by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Public Service Union (EPSU) in Brussels on 15th and 16th October 2012. This video is [...]
The Crisis of the GDP-led Growth Model
25/10/2012 by
Watch Philippe Van Parijs (University of Louvain) discuss the above topic. This talk was recorded at the conference ‘From (un)economic growth to future well-being’ organised by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Public Service Union (EPSU) in Brussels on 15th and 16th October 2012. This video is part of the European growth strategy [...]
A Europe for the World
23/10/2012 by
Despite the welter of economic problems surrounding Europe, one fact should not be forgotten: the European Union remains the world’s largest economy. With a GDP of more than €15.5 trillion, it is larger than that of the United States. And, with 20% of world trade, the EU is also the world’s second-largest exporter and importer, [...]
Climate Change and the GDP-led Growth Model
23/10/2012 by
Watch Andrew Simms, Fellow at the New Economics Foundation (NEF) in London, discuss climate change and the flaws of the GDP-based growth model. This talk was recorded at the conference ‘From (un)economic growth to future well-being’ organised by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Public Service Union (EPSU) in Brussels on 15th [...]
The euro area anchor is slipping
17/10/2012 by
Yet more evidence, if it were needed (see here and here), that the crisis in the euro area’s so-called periphery is feeding back to the core: the IMK’s monthly recession indicator, published yesterday, has jumped up. The figures imply a more than 40% chance of a recession in Germany beginning in the coming months. (See [...]
Central Banks on the Offensive?
26/09/2012 by
It looks like a coordinated offensive: on September 6, the European Central Bank outlined a new bond-buying program, letting markets know that there were no pre-set limits to its purchases. On September 13, the United States Federal Reserve announced that in the coming months it would purchase some $85 billion of long-term securities per month, [...]
Europe sliding back into recession
14/08/2012 by
The latest quarterly GDP figures confirm the already pessimistic expectations. Europe is sliding back into recession. In both the euro area and the EU27 growth output contracted by 0.2% in the second quarter. This followed on stagnation in the first quarter and a decline of 0.3% in the last quarter of 2011. (In each case [...]
Be more measured in criticising measurement of youth unemployment
25/07/2012 by
Stephen Hill has a post on this website criticising the use of the youth unemployment rate as a measure of the extent that joblessness amongst young people is an economic and social problem. Unfortunately he goes way over the top in a number of regards, notably the claim that: “Economists don’t know how to measure [...]
A Global Perfect Storm
19/06/2012 by
Dark, lowering financial and economic clouds are, it seems, rolling in from every direction: the eurozone, the United States, China, and elsewhere. Indeed, the global economy in 2013 could be a very difficult environment in which to find shelter. For starters, the eurozone crisis is worsening, as the euro remains too strong, front-loaded fiscal austerity [...]
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