100 posts
"Revitalising European Industry" by Frank-Walter Steinmeier
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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...
Week ahead Calendar: 06/02/2012 to 10/02/2012 – Calm week?
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Once again, please find below a list of the eventful days ahead. The main sources are Unicredit’s Weekly Focus, Forex Trading weekly calendar, the EU’s general calendar, the EU’s national issuance calendar and many others, all of which...
The culture of debt
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"The global debt crisis is not just about the growing government debt burdens of economies, nor about the financial liquidity crisis plaguing banks. The true debt crisis is much deeper than that. It involves entire economies and societies evolvin...
Have modern Europeans forgotten the lessons from WWI and WWII?
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In the 20th the "precious asset" was know-how (the "how to do"), In the 21st it is philosophy (the "why do", watch my vlog (on YouTube): "A key difference between the 20th and 21st centuries: From "How?" to "Why"", 1 min 46 seconds) In the first 11...
Fiscal Adjustment: Too Much of a Good Thing?
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The IMF has argued for some time that the very high public debt ratios in many advanced economies should be brought down to safer levels through a gradual and steady process. Doing either too little or too much both involve risks: not enough fiscal a...
Euro, Davos, Canada and that which the World economy desperately lacks (Demand!) (On TV Ontario, interviewed by Steve Paikin)
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Filed under: European Crisis, Politics and Economics...
The last week
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Good news in the USA, but not as good as expected: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-economy-grew-at-fastest-pace-in-15-years-in-q4-2011/2012/01/27/gIQA1r8IVQ_story.html Good news in Europe: Portugal yields...
Lagarde in Davos: How to Avoid an Economic Deep Freeze
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Amid the heaviest snowfall in Davos for decades, IMF chief Christine Lagarde has been making her case for urgent action to resolve the eurozone crisis, which is at the center of current global economic concerns. The Fund recently sharply revised down...
Reigniting the global economy
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In Davos, leaders are attempting to find ways to restart the sputtering global economy. Two new studies released today at the World Economic Forum offer an answer: open up an Internet browser on our laptop, mobile phone or tablet and encourage the In...
Andrew Nicolls’ Friday AM Davos
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So the sun set on Davos yesterday, and all the talk is about the strength of David Cameron’s speech yesterday read more...
"Stimulus vs. Austerity: An Unsettled Debate" by Steven Hill
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Many nations try both: “Aust-imulus?” Few subjects have so bitterly divided our insecure times than the double-edged saber of stimulus vs. austerity. Consensus over which course will lift the current...
Gordon Brown | Europe's three-dimensional crisis
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This is not just a fiscal crisis. We are seeing the decline of the west, and only a growth-led response can ease the transitionIn the rush to define Europe's problems as fiscal, our deep-seated banking and competitiveness problems have been largely i...
What future for economics?
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Martin Wolf writes on the Financial Times' The World blog (also known as Gideon Rachman's blog) about a forum he moderated in Davos, featuring several promiment salt-water economists. To summarise, he has 10 propositions about economics. Since I took...
Leverage and Balance Sheet Management: Reserve Ratios and VaR
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Having previously considered how banks intermediate between investors and their investments, FRB and bank runs, and having shown that overlending is likely to be an equilibrium result of the financial market, I now turn my attention to how banks, amo...
Let’s all win! Europe at work
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We hosted Nicolai Wammen representing the new Danish Presidency in our plenary session last week, just after Martin Schulz was elected as the new president of the European Parliament. Together they give quite a complementary picture and programme for...
How can we make Europe more competitive?
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The question of how to make Europe more “competitive” has come up several times on Debating Europe. Some of you blame the Euro for creating “massive imbalances in terms of competitiveness” between EU member-states (and suggest...
Week Ahead Calendar: 20/01/2012 to 27/01/2012 – Schedules and Hopes
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Please find below a list of the eventful days ahead. The main sources are Unicredit’s Weekly Focus, Forex Trading weekly calendar, the EU’s national issuance calendar and many others, all of which I advise you to consult directly. I f...
Morning Briefing: Hungary’s Final 2011 Budget Deficit Due
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A clearer assessment of the relative strength of Hungary's economy comes Monday when the country's 2011 final budget deficit figures are released. They are likely to show a deficit close to 3% of gross domestic product.
World Economic Forum: Thousands gather, with billions to spend. Will the world benefit?
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“Forget the reviled "1 per cent". This club is far more exclusive that that.” Very good critical article from "The Independent" on the importance and scope of the annual Davos meeting. More coverage of the annual Davos...
World Economic Forum’s Call to Action is stuck in 20th century thinking
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The Global Issues Group (GIG) of the World Economic Forum, comprised of leaders of the world’s multilateral and regional institutions has published this "Call to Action’ in the run-up to the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos. ...
Figuring out the value of the web
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Today we’re launching a website called Value of the Web to collect research that sheds new light on the economic impact of the Internet. It’s available in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish and currently features a range of studies focu...
More IMF contributions? conditionality is king
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The rumours were finally confirmed today as the IMF released a statement announcing its plans to increase its funding base by up to $500bn. There’s been a lot of talk in the British media in recent weeks about the potential increased UK contributio...
High labor costs .... and low retail prices
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Labor costs are one factor influencing production costs. High labor costs are often cited as one major reason for moving production abroad: It has become too expensive to manufacture domestically. This does of course not apply to all products, l...
Playing Chicken And Rooster With Hungary
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Tension surrounding the application of a series of so-called “unorthodox policies” by Hungary’s Fidesz government has certainly been rising in recent days. While Washington has been reasonably quiet as govenment emissary Tamas Felle...
Will 2012 be Europe's annus horribilis?
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With growing concern that the economic crisis will turn into recession or worse, citizens may have to console themselves with watching sport to forget their troubles - writes Dean Carroll...
Morning Briefing: Polish Central Bank to Leave Rates Steady
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Monetary policy in the region takes center stage Wednesday, with a Polish rate decision expected midday and minutes from Hungary's policy meeting of last week due later in the afternoon.
"A Ten-Point Roadmap for a new Growth Model" by Bjorn Hacker
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The economic and financial crisis has laid bare the weaknesses of the dominant growth model in no uncertain terms. Manifestly, this growth, which was largely abandoned to market forces, was not...
Four years after the Stiglitz report on GDP: where do we stand?
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“Le 8 janvier 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy proposait la création d’une Commission sur la mesure des performances économiques et du progrès social, qui aboutira à la création de la Commission Stiglitz …” Very interesting interview in t...
"Europe in 2012" by Henning Meyer
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The next printed issue of Social Europe Journal will be on ‘Europe in 2012′. Last December, I took part in a discussion on the same topic with Mark Leonard and Christine Ockrent at...
Debating economics, Darwinian selection and love
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I have read a post by Brad Delong and the post you're reading now has been in someway triggered by that one, but it's not a reply to it. So let's end the preamble and enter the main point.I think it was Karl Popper the first to think to the process o...
How to Spend It, and the economics of the useless
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Swinging off this post at Unlearning Economics, I was motivated to write a long comment that really ought to be blogged. The industrial economics of extreme wealth is an interesting subject. It’s often been observed that a lot of the … Co...
Catherine Day on the EU in 2012
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Catherine Day on the European Commission's top priorities for 2012.
EU2020 stands for 20 missing languages
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What does the Commission's Europe 2020 web page Annual Growth Surveys have in common with Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecfin) page EU economic governance and president José Manuel Barroso's own res gestae on New action for growth, governance and...
Hungary’s Government Quarrels With Central Bank Over Debt Figures
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The National Bank of Hungary and the country's government Monday fell out publicly over the country's public debt statistics, just days after the government opened the way toward taking control over the central bank.
European Commission Work Programme 2012: Internal market and services
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For some reason Eur-Lex stubbornly renders the headline of the bibliographic notice in Danish, although the rest of the text is in English. Anyway, the Commission work programme 2012, available in 22 official EU languages, is a suitable read when we...
Why Britain should think about doing things the German way | Jonathan Glancey
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The British economy is built on flimsy and unreliable foundations. We should be making more thingsFour years ago I attended the opening ceremony of BMW Welt in Munich. This sensational vortex of a building is where you go should you feel like a littl...
"A Note On The Ricardian Equivalence Argument Against Stimulus" by Paul Krugman
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There have been a lot of shockingly bad performances among macroeconomists in this crisis; but if I had to pick the one that is most startling, it is the way freshwater economists have demonstrated...
What is the EU doing for growth and jobs?
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The European Council has repeatedly endorsed and called for a Digital Single Market, as well as other growth reforms. This quote comes from the conclusions 9 December 2011 (EUCO 139/11; page 1, point 2): Recalling the key priority areas for growth it...
Books, Books, Books
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I have quite a few important - at least I think so - projects coming up next year. The scope of work requires me to take a time-out from my consulting work. It also requires me to do a lot of reading. Books are a great source of inspiration and enlig...
Ending 2011 with a fable for our times
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As 2011 is drawing to a close, with the ECB only having managed to paper over the deepening cracks of the eurozone, it is time to allow ourselves to abandon the barricades for ten days or so. If the soldiers in the Great War’s killing fields co...
Further further reading
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For the commute home, - Feldstein on the failure of the euro.- Why the world’s central banks should produce more safe assets.- The global youth unemployment crisis....
Pink picks
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Comment, analysis and more from Wednesday’s FT,Martin Wolf: Sinking into the ‘great stagnation’The future is not what it used to be. Nor is the present,...
Morning Briefing: Hungarian Central Bank to Lift Rates
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Hungary's central bank is likely to tighten monetary policy Tuesday, though markets will eye Polish inflation data and will be watching for any euro-zone developments amid modest newsflow elsewhere in central Europe.
Snap news
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Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,- AstraZeneca warns full year earnings will be at the lower end of expectation after two late stage drug failures — statement.- Novartis...
The two mentalities that brought us into the current crisis
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The foundations for the current crisis that we are all experiencing, some to a greater, some to a lesser extend, were placed decades ago, in the late 1970's - early 80's. It was the manner in which our societies (mostly the "western") built their eco...
IMF, EU Delegations Leave Hungary Early
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Delegations of the International Monetary Fund and the European Union left Hungary early after informal talks broke down over new regulations involving the central bank. "Given that the government did not indicate a willingness to delay passage of...
EU: goals, own goals and the landscape after battle.
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The EU is in a mess. Two governments have recently been deposed, Italy and Greece. Jobs are disappearing and people are in trouble. A couple of smaller states have experienced the IMF treatment, Latvia and Hungary. Spain, Ireland and Portugal are all...
the lessons from Rodrik’s globalisation paradox
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Last week we had the pleasure to hear Professor Dani Rodrik deliver the annual lecture of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). The lecture was a brilliant example how a widely published academic economist, active in the best scie...
Sowing the seeds of growth
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As we argued in a previous proposal, the third pillar of growth besides innovation and entrepreneurship is public investment in large-scale infrastructure projects. The objective of such investments is two-fold. On the one hand, investing public mone...
The S&P statement
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Fifteen eurozone countries placed on CreditWatch negative, not just the six AAAs, as we’d expected earlier.Here’s the statement:FRANKFURT (Standard & Poor’s) Dec....
Chart of the week, IMF edition
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Via the TUC Blog, this chart from the IMF is worth studying. It shows the sources of public debt in Europe since 2007 for Germany, Italy, France, and the UK. You will notice that: yes, Virginia, the Germans bailed out the banks. Also, the Germans car...
Capitalism is in trouble because ...
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Capitalism is in trouble because it relies on 2 unnatural (thus inherently flawed) premises: a) Trust b) certainty or the quantification of riskNickPthinks on business, EU policy, socio-economics and systemics in Europe. North America and the world...
EU: Ecofin followed up G20 Cannes summit
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When I waded through the documents published by the G20 summit in Cannes 3 to 4 November 2011, I wondered if the Ecofin Council of the EU would find anything intelligent to say, something to highlight for posterity. Now we have the Ecofin conclusions...
EU: Ecofin and Annual Growth Survey 2012
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The agenda of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council 30 November 2011 promises a presentation by the Commission of the Annual Growth Survey (AGS). Here is a recent blog post about the second European Semester and AGS, with links back to the first...
EU: Ecofin G20 Cannes summit follow-up
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It happened less than four weeks ago, but the daily developments during the global financial crisis and the crisis of the euro make it feel like an eternity: the G20 Cannes summit. According to the agenda of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council...
Policy euroblogs: economy and eurozone
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Ronny Patz made some interesting observations about policy-oriented euroblogs. He mentioned and linked to a number of interesting blogs in different policy areas. Patz mentioned the growth of economic blogging during the ongoing crisis, even if he di...
It was posted exactly two years ago
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It was posted exactly two years ago on Friday, November 27, 2009 Just a REMINDER, republished exactly the same! Few days ago, inquiring minds asked Nobel Prize Krugman about debt/GDP ratio comparisons. There is a bizarre school of thought who ten...
Hungary Wants Flexible Help From IMF
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Hungary will be looking to make a deal on receiving the most flexible solution offered by the International Monetary Fund during talks starting in December, Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said.
Further further reading
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For the commute home,- European banks edge closer to the Twilight Zone.- Why Americans spend and other countries save.- The rise and fall of Bitcoin.- Should we worry...
Manufacturing quality collateral
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Regulators are demanding that banks set aside larger amounts of high-quality liquid assets to help them withstand periods of market stress.The securities generally deemed acceptable...
Crisis? Polish Shoppers Fail to Notice
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The euro zone was shaking, economists talked of how vulnerable central Europe was, Hungary faced an imminent credit rating downgrade---while Polish shoppers ignored it all and increased their spending at double-digit rates in October.
"Stating Our Priorities" by Max Gruenig
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Three pillars are essential to developing sustainable policies: economic, environmental and social. True progressive sustainability requires a balance of these three pillars which, in turn, allows...
Politics and the EU financial crisis
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The other day, I was asked in an interview whether finance was killing democracy. Judged over the post-war period, the answer must be a qualified ‘no’. But things at present are not looking good. Finance has not killed politics—if anything,...
EU: Can expansionary budgets save us from hardship?
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Should Europe spend its way out of gloom and ever slowing growth? Are there real alternatives to the so called austerity measures, actually efforts to reduce government borrowing and eventually total debt to sustainable levels? EU government deficits...
"Sustainability in the Good Society" by Henning Meyer
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In crisis times like the one we are living through at the moment, there are typically two aspects that have to be thought through thoroughly. The first is how to stop the progressing rot from the...
Interview Transcript: Governor of National Bank of Poland
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The National Bank of Poland's interventions to prevent the zloty from weakening rapidly have produced an encouraging result and the central bank is ready to step in again if investors exit the Polish currency in a disorderly fashion, said Marek Belka...
