Latest posts
"Revitalising European Industry" by Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Europe is debilitated with the effects of two years of desperate crisis management. The prescribed treatment resembles the old practice of bloodletting on ailing patients. Growing debts are paid with...
"The Great Anti-Keynesian Flip-Out" by Paul Krugman
Keynesian economists made some pretty clear predictions around 3 years ago – predictions that were very much at odds with what anti-Keynesians were saying. We said that as long as the economy...
"Stronger Europe or Democratic Sovereignty? Yes Please!" by Paul Linden-Retek
European citizens today are confronted with increasingly histrionic specters of disaster: financial ruin, xenophobic regression, a catastrophic reversal of the pax Europaea achieved over the past...
"The Unemployed are getting (called) lazy again: A reliable Indicator of Economic Policy Mismanagement" by Andrew Watt
So a British government minister has come out and said that (Britain’s) unemployment problem is due to the laziness of the unemployed. There is no shortage of jobs, she announced, pointing to...
"Punk Economics: The European Crisis explained in 10 Minutes" by Henning Meyer
Irish economist David McWilliams gives us a first lesson in punk economics, explaining the European economic crisis in 10 minutes and pretty much all of it is spot on. A great way to visualise the...
"Capturing the ECB" by Joseph Stiglitz
Nothing illustrates better the political crosscurrents, special interests, and shortsighted economics now at play in Europe than the debate over the restructuring of Greece’s sovereign debt. Germany...
"Europe’s multiple Crises" by David Marquand
Professor David Marquand (Oxford University) discusses the Crisis of the European Union, the crisis of pro-Europe Britain and the crisis of the European left.
"Time for a Commercial Break" by Andrew Watt
The ETUI has just issued an e-book entitled A triumph of failed ideas. European models of capitalism in the crisis. Generous to a fault, the book can be downloaded for free here. Edited by Steffen...
"Undermined by Idiocracy" by John Quiggin
The issue of climate change is unlikely to play much of a role in the US Presidential election campaign, which will begin in June with the nomination of a Republican candidate to face Barack Obama....
"A Strategy for Russia’s Snow Revolution" by Mischa Gabowitsch
Nonviolent revolutions do not always remain nonviolent, as the examples of uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria in the Arab Spring have shown. But peaceful movements for regime change often do...
"The Greece Crisis: Break away from Groundhog Day" by Vassilis Monastiriotis
In the contemporary saga of the Greek/Eurozone (=Eurozone) crisis, there are basically four sorts of policy propositions. There are the ones that say that Greece is helpless, that the Eurozone is a...
"Steve Jobs, the Third Way and the Future of Social Democracy" by Henning Meyer
The late Steve Jobs was certainly not an easy person to deal with and as Apple CEO a very demanding manager. But nobody can deny that his vision and instincts for clever designs and what people...
"Reinventing Europe: Brigid Laffan" by Brigid Laffan
As part of ECFR’s ‘Reinvention of Europe’ project, we are running a series of responses from leading thinkers and academics to Mark Leonard’s recent paper,‘Four...
"Solidarity for Sale?" by SEJ
The Bertelsmann Foundation has just released a new publication entitled ‘Solidarity for Sale – The Social Dimension of the New European Economic Governance’ as part of its Europe in...
"Sustainable Humanity" by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Sustainable development means achieving economic growth that is widely shared and that protects the earth’s vital resources. Our current global economy, however, is not sustainable, with more than...
"Social Democracy and Equal Opportunity" by John Quiggin
My critique of Tyler Cowen’s post arguing the unimportance of social mobility has started off, or maybe merged into, of those old-fashioned blog firestorms we used to have back in the day, now also...
"Why the People’s Pledge is a Bad Idea" by Henning Meyer
The People’s Pledge is a newish campaign in the UK that tries to force a referendum about Britain’s EU membership. What is the problem you might say, given that I have also long supported...
"The Chancellor Who Played with Fire" by Joschka Fischer
German Chancellor Angela Merkel should be happy nowadays: her party’s approval ratings aren’t bad, and her own are very good. She no longer has serious rivals within the center-right Christian...
"The Biggest Risk to the Economy in 2012, and What’s the Economy For Anyway?" by Robert Reich
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos a few days ago, said the “critical risks” facing the American economy this year were a worsening of Europe’s chronic...
"Germany in Europe: A European game change?" by Ulrike Guerot
It is not easy to detect where the euro debate stands after coming back from a holiday in India. In fact the euro crisis was hardly mentioned in the The Hindu, one of the most important Indian...
