debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
The latest Eurostat flash estimate shows that at least nine EU countries are in recession, having posted negative economic growth in both the first quarter of 2012 and the last of 2012. In four of these Member States that makes three consecutive quarters of contraction and in Greece and Portugal output has been falling for [...]
Some politicians (and economists) pretend that cutting spending and raising taxes will lead to budget balance.[1] The argument is all too familiar in Britain. Indeed, it is the cornerstone of the ‘austerity drive’ and ‘fiscal compact’ that the Euro Area (EA) is currently adopting. In particular, Angela Merkel has promoted the notion that government profligacy [...]
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 [...]
There has been much criticism in Britain of Germany’s domination of the EU — of the country’s exporting its domestic rules to other member countries, and of its heavy-handed treatment of the UK over the Euro-zone crisis. Berlin is sensitive to such developments. And it gives a large portion of the blame to the UK. [...]
The crisis in Europe has demonstrated that there is going to have to be a change of direction, not only in Germany, but throughout the European Union, if we want our continent to be in a position to meet the challenges of the future. For this reason we need a programme for the reform of Europe’s [...]
At the beginning of the week I attended a Belgian/German conference jointly organised by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Egmont Institute. The conference included a keynote speech by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on his Agenda 2010 and current European politics. I have always been very critical of the Agenda 2010 (and still am) – [...]
One of the most pernicious falsehoods you’ll hear during the next seven months of political campaigning is there’s a necessary tradeoff between fairness and economic growth. By this view, if we raise taxes on the wealthy the economy can’t grow as fast. Wrong. Taxes were far higher on top incomes in the three decades after [...]
The recent joint economic forecast by the IMK, WiFO and OFCE is now available in English (see the link on the right; auf deutsch hier). I should warn you: it makes miserable reading. While the extraordinary measures by the ECB and the shoring up of the European bail-out fund have averted a meltdown, the institutes [...]
The paradoxically specular way events present themselves over history is quite frequent. It is the case of Germany nowadays in Europe, in the management of the crisis of Greek debt, and in the EU’s preliminary agreements on fiscal policies. This role appears antithetic to what happened after World War I. On June 28th 1919 the [...]
When most of the EU states pledged at the end of last year to introduce stricter debt limits, where possible incorporating them into the Constitution, this resulted primarily from an acute sense of panic in the face of the continuing escalation of the Euro crisis. For the first time, even the bonds of hitherto unaffected [...]
Dean Baker writes a stimulating blog that I recommend consuming regularly. Even seemingly innocuous posts can sometimes lead one to unexpected places. The starting point is Dean gently chiding the New York Times for calling Germany a ‘graveyard for retailers’ because its growth was based on exports and domestic demand was weak. Dean points out [...]
The basic demands of the French Revolution – Liberty, Egality and Fraternity – are also the basic values of German Social Democracy: Freedom, Justice and Solidarity. “Freedom” here is not used in the narrower liberal sense of formal freedom under the law or the free-for-all of economic markets, but rather means the concrete legal, social, [...]
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 
All Content
Follow US on Social Media