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Down but Not Out
Yesterday, I was in New Haven having lunch with Juan Linz, the greatest social scientist Spain has produced, and other friends when the results from the regional elections in Andalusia started coming in. It had been a given on the part of...
Fade to Grey
Last week, I was in Sevilla, the capital of Spain’s southern region, Andalucia, where a political earthquake is expected in March. Recent polls suggest that the conservative Popular Party will win an absolute majority in the regional election...
Higher Education and the Crisis
Yesterday, on the way into town from the airport in Seville, where I am giving a series of talks, my university host and I were talking about the state of higher education and the economic crisis. He was bracing for another round of pay cuts he...
Politics vs. Economics
This week ended with the expected, though no less demoralizing, news of more declines in credit ratings in Europe, or as Barron’s colorfully calls it, ‘Downgrade-palooza’. Both France and Austria lost their sterling AAA ratings and dropped a no...
We Have Lift-off
At least that was the hope for yesterday’s speech by Ed Miliband, the head of the British Labour Party. It was hyped for days as his re-launch by the media, who see his poor standing in the polls and rumors in the party as evidence that his d...
Is Social Democracy Dead?
Although the financial crisis has caused a fair number of casualties for incumbent governments, with voters holding governing parties of whatever political stripe responsible for the crisis, these are especially hard times for social democracy. ...
Magyar Mayhem
One of the questions prompted by the Eurocrisis, notably with respect to Greece, is whether there are mechanisms for a country that is not complying with the obligations of membership to be sent packing from EMU. Today, though, Hungary makes us wonde...
Turkey 2011: Out of Europe's Shadow
As 2011 draws to a close, we can be certain that it will be remembered as the year of the Eurocrisis, with all the global economic uncertainties that implies. However, one of the biggest stories of the year with implications for Europe has been...
Buon Anno
Yesterday’s sale of short-term Italian debt saw rates cut in half compared with the last auction in November. While the drop on the yield for 6-month bonds to 3.25% was welcome news (though still over a percentage point higher than comparable...
Glad Tidings?
The new Spanish government got an early Christmas present in the form of a very successful treasury auction today and much lowered borrowing costs. Their hopes to sell between €3.5 and 4.5 bn in short term (3 and 6 month) debt were wildly exc...
The Pain in Spain
Today Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s newly elected President, gave his first speech in his new role before Parliament and laid out his plans to deal with the crisis. Like Monti, his counterpart in Italy, Rajoy’s proposed cuts fall at the lower end of est...
An Unremarkable Election
Thursday's by-election in the West London parliamentary district of Feltham and Heston to fill a safe seat left vacant by the death of its occupant would normally have been unremarkable. However, because this was the first electoral test in the UK af...
Winter of Discontent
One of the constant background murmurs in the Eurocrisis discussions has been the issue of how long countries subjected to austerity measures would actually be able to stick with a regime of cuts and other deeply unpopular policies. That uncert...
Winners and Losers
The ink is drying on last week's proposed EU treaty amendments meant to help contain the Eurozone crisis by tightening up restrictions on deficits and subjecting EU member states to greater scrutiny of their budgets. Although it is too soon to tell w...
The Berlin Consensus
The finger-wagging Washington Consensus of the 1990s that prescribed market based reforms for crisis-ridden developing countries has been replaced in Europe by what we might call the Berlin Consensus that calls for austerity in the Eurozone countries...
Melancholia
Yesterday, as I was listening to Guido Goldman's talk on Germany and the Euro Crisis at the Center for European Studies, I was struck by the similarities between the way debt crisis is playing out this week and Lars von Trier's brilliant film, Melanc...
Making a List, Checking it Twice
Perhaps you overslept the 4:00 am sales on Black Friday or your friends and family do not understand the thrill of a waffle iron. To help you with the yearly chore of finding the perfect present, here are some books on Europe published this year that...
Power Shifts East
Among the many calls for ‘more Europe’ and greater integration to effectively tackle the problems of the Euro, last Monday's blunt speech in Berlin by Radek Sikorski, Poland's outspoken Foreign Minister, merits perhaps the most attention. If life...
20-N was not the Worst Election Ever for the PSOE
PSOEContrary to the breathless headlines on virtually every story covering last week's Spanish elections, it was not the Spanish Socialists' worst election ever. True, they lost 4 million votes, 59 seats, the election and handed the...
