debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Concern has frequently been expressed that the deep and ongoing economic crisis in Europe, especially in the so-called periphery, could lead to a rise of political extremism. Reference is often made to the inter-war experience of Germany where the mass unemployment created by the Great Depression and the inability of democratic parties to deal with [...]
The policy advice of ex-political leaders always needs to be taken with a large dose of salt. All too often the message is less about genuinely forward-looking recommendations and more about backward-looking justifications, namely of the writer’s own action while in power. So it is with Gerhard Schröder, who gives his take on Europe and [...]
The high unemployment that we have today in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere is a tragedy, not just because of the aggregate output loss that it entails, but also because of the personal and emotional cost to the unemployed of not being a part of working society. Austerity, according to some of its promoters, [...]
Most political leaders in Europe want the European Union to emerge from its current crisis stronger and more united. But the economic policies that have been implemented in most EU countries since the crisis began have given rise to an unprecedented threat to deeper integration – and, indeed, to what already has been achieved. After [...]
I am struck by the frequency with which the media are uncritically giving space to employers groups complaining about a supposed lack of skills. In Germany the idea does not seem completely absurd. Unemployment is at 5.5%, but there is considerable regional variation. Moreover, the German population is set to decline in the coming years. [...]
The EU Parliament and other EU institutions are considering very seriously the possibility to adopt for all member states a model of management of the labor market that is typical of the Central and Northern European countries. With the obligation of the state to provide young people with a job, training or educational opportunity within [...]
We are getting used to bad news about the labour market situation in Europe. Record-breaking 12% unemployment in the euro area. More than 26 million men and women unemployed across the EU27. More than a quarter of the workforce jobless in Spain and Greece. Youth unemployment rates (which need careful interpretation) around twice as high. [...]
The Commission has just issued an analysis (in-depth review, IDR) of thirteen EU countries considered to have macroeconomic imbalances.* In principle this is a sensible exercise. Macroeconomic imbalances had built up in the pre-crisis years. They have important cross-border spillover effects. Resolving them is thus a matter of the common interest of all the member [...]
I planned to blog on the failure of the ECB to take the opportunity of its Council meeting today to inject confidence and optimism (or at least counter fear and pessimism) in the face of the recession, record unemployment and falling inflation by announcing concrete steps to underpin the promise “to do all its takes” [...]
The world used to be divided into the ‘developed’ and the ‘developing’. During the past decade the concept of the developing world has been successfully challenged: the countries that used to be so described have now been disaggregated. Countries such as China and India have diverged quite fundamentally from those like Chad and Afghanistan. Viewed [...]
Last week’s Eurostat press statement on unemployment is devastating. In December 2012, unemployment stood at 11.7% in the Euro area and 10.7% in the EU-27. In both areas, unemployment was is significantly up from December 2011.In the whole of Europe, 25.9 million people are unemployed of which 5.7 million are youngsters. Greece and Spain, recording [...]
We are in the most anemic recovery in modern history, yet our political leaders in Washington aren’t doing squat about it. In fact, apart from the Fed – which continues to hold interest rates down in the quixotic hope that banks will begin lending again to average people – the government is heading in exactly [...]
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