URL: Latest posts
Movement on Europe?
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Jean Quatremer reports that Angela Merkel is prepared to make significant changes in Europe's governance structures and treaties. François Hollande has given signs of thinking along similar lines. Both leaders are said to have been shocked by...
James Galbraith's Plan for Europe
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Jamie Galbraith thinks that what Europe needs is not a stimulus plan but a "stabilization plan." Specifically, he thinks that the Eurozone needs an expansive social protection plan, like Social Security in the U.S., providing equal benefits to all me...
Hollande's "Surprise Maneuver"
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The German network ARD calls it a "surprise maneuver," but all Hollande did was revive the call of his predecessor--and of all previous French administrations since Maastricht--for more centralized economic governance of the Eurozone. The surpr...
Inside the Paris-Brussels Accord
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The EU recently granted France a two-year respite in its drive to reduce the budget deficit to 3% of GDP. How did this come about? Le Monde has a very interesting background piece today. It reports that the steady French push for more pro-growth meas...
EU Turns Off French
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According to a recent Pew poll, support for the EU has declined more in France than anywhere else:...
The French Are Pessimists
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Right, so what else is new:Ce constat rend d'autant plus étonnant l'extrême pessimisme des Français. En moyenne, 92 % des Européens ont un sentiment négatif sur l'avenir de leur pays ou sur le sort de leurs concitoye...
The Party Leader Prefigured the President
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The thought has occurred to many: François Hollande as president is in many ways similar to François Hollande as party leader. His authority is doubted, his ability to enunciate a clear line through a thicket of incompatible positions i...
Straight Talk on the French Economy from Daniel Cohen
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Here. He pretty much agrees with what I've been saying in numerous recent posts.
Blanchard and Leigh on What to Do about the Economy
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IMF economists Olivier Blanchard and Daniel Leigh take a middle-of-the-road view on the question of stimulus vs. austerity and multipliers vs debt/gdp ratios. They are cogent, if a bit tepid, recommending stimulus, or at any rate "slower consolidatio...
Bibow on the Euro Crisis
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Jörg Bibow analyzes the different positions of France and Germany on the common currency:The German model has plunged the European Union into existential crisis. A model the workability of which depends on others behaving differently from German...
Habermas Speaks Out on EU
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Jürgen Habermas envisions the future of the EU in a speech at Leuven University:Habermas emphasises that solidarity is a political act and is in no way a form of moral selflessness. It is an attractive concept because it pays off in the long ter...
ECB Cuts Rate
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The ECB, as widely expected, has cut its main interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.5 percent. This is a reaction to the austerity-induced recession that is currently afflicting Europe. It will not accomplish much. Read it as a gesture: "We care," or...
Du rififi chez le PS
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As regular readers know, the PS erupted last week in a mini-rebellion against the official economic policy of Troika-approved austerity. Yesterday, Jean-Marc Ayrault tried to cool tempers, especially insofar as the attacks were directed personally at...
Will the ECB Cut Rates?
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Brad Plumer, citing Benn Steil and Dinah Walker of the CFR, argues that the answer to the question isn't as simple as it might appear.Consider this graph:And this discussion from Steil and Walker:The ECB’s official inflation-rate target is &ldq...
The "Political Crash" Ahead
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Mediapart sees a "political crash" ahead. This has been a decisive week in the euro crisis, according to the paper. The dam has cracked, and a torrent of criticism of austerity has come pouring forth from all sides, as I've reported in previous posts...
Dissolving the Eurozone in the Name of Social Democracy
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David Lizoain means to provoke: since the crisis does not appear to be producing a swing toward social-democratic majorities across Europe, he argues, perhaps the only hope for social democracy is to dissolve the euro. The logic may be flawed, but th...
The UMP Finds Its Angle of Attack
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Alain Juppé is leading the pushback. François Hollande has "broken faith" with Germany, raising a "mortal peril" for France (really?). Bartolone and Cambadélis have called for "confrontation" with France's primary European partne...
Is Europe's New Language on Austerity Real?
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Not everyone thinks so:Politicians on the left who have long campaigned against austerity worry that the softer tone on spending cuts adopted by Mr. Barroso and others will bring only policy tweaks on the margins. “Are we just fiddling while Ro...
Collapse of Confidence in the EU
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The figures are eloquent:Depuis le début de la crise, la confiance en l'Union européenne (UE) a dégringolé de 32 points en France, 49 en Allemagne, 52 en Italie, 98 en Espagne, 44 en Pologne et 36 au Royaume-Uni.Le plus fr...
Another Anti-Austerity Voice (or Peep?)
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Enrico Letta, no. 2 in the Italian Democratic Party, has been called on to try to form a government (the no. 1, Bersani, already tried and failed). One of his first statements was "Europe's austerity policy is no longer sufficient." It might be a str...
