Economist, (2015), “The sticky superpower”, Special Report, 3 Οκτωβρίου IN JUNE THIS year Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, a giant Chinese e-commerce firm, addressed the Economic Club of New York, whose members include many Manhattan luminaries and Wall Street chiefs. Mr Ma’s message was that his company exists for the long-term good of society, a far cry from the creed of shareholder value followed by many in the room. …Read More
Ruparel, Raoul, (2015), “Commission eyes pragmatic steps towards Capital Markets Union”, Open Europe, 30 Σεπτεμβρίου The European Commission has today released its detailed “Action Plan” for the creation of a Capital Markets Union (CMU). Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel assess what is and what is not included in the plans. Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις Wolff, Guntram and Veron Nicolas, (2015) “Capital Markets Union: a vision for the long term”, 24 Απριλίου. Louri-Dendrinou, Ε. …Read More
AV Catão, Luis, C. Mano, Rui, (2015), “Measuring the interest premium for past default”, Voxeu, 29 Σεπτεμβρίου Sovereign governments re-entering capital markets after debt renegotiations pay an interest rate premium for past defaults. This column presents new evidence that suggests earlier studies have underestimated this premium. This is partly due to the narrow credit history indicators used in previous studies as well as the narrow data coverage. Correcting for these problems, a sizeable …Read More
Harbour, Malcolm, (2015), “Strengthening the beating heart of the European economy”, European Policy Centre Publications, 29 Σεπτεμβρίου In an atmosphere of crisis, distrust and fragmentation, policy-makers in Brussels are mostly focused on fighting fire without having an ambitious vision for the future – in effect, muddling through, as has been the characteristic response in recent years. However, by remaining in crisis response mode, the European Union (EU) is failing to provide …Read More
Mukand, Sharun, Rodrik, Dani, (2015), “The political economy of liberal democracy“, Voxeu, 29 Σεπτεμβρίου There are more democracies in the world than non-democracies, but few of the democracies go beyond electoral competition. This column highlights the contrast between electoral democracies and liberal ones, that is, those that protect civil rights in addition to political and property rights. Liberal democracies are rare because the failure to protect minority rights is a common consequence of the …Read More
Palacio, Ana, (2015), “The BRICS Fallacy”, Project Syndicate, 29 Σεπτεμβρίου The recent downgrade of Brazil’s credit rating to junk status was followed by a raft of articles heralding the crumbling of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). How predictable: schadenfreude almost always follows bad news about the BRICS, whose members were once hailed as the world’s up-and-coming economic powerhouses and next major political force. Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις Παπανικολάου, …Read More
Gopinath, Gita, Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem, Karabarbounis, Loukas, Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina, (2015), “Low interest rates, capital flows, and declining productivity in South Europe”, Voxeu, 28 Σεπτεμβρίου Joining the Eurozone was once a near unquestionably good idea. Now, the costs of joining the monetary union are under close scrutiny. This column takes a slightly different tack, presenting an alternative perspective on how joining the euro has impacted productivity in southern Europe. It turns out that capital wasn’t allocated efficiently across firms …Read More
Janssen, Ronald, (2015), “How Germany Gains From The Euro While Others Pay”, Social Europe Journal, 27 Σεπτεμβρίου One of its main ideas is that the euro area lacks a procedure that could declare member states bankrupt when having lost access to financial markets. This makes the restructuring of unsustainably high debt burdens even more complicated than it is. Schäuble’s non-paper even uses the Greek crisis to argue that this situation …Read More
Aiyar, Shekhar, Ilyina, Anna, (2015), “A Strategy for Resolving Europe’s Problem Loans”, IMF Direct blog, 24 Σεπτεμβρίου Problem loans are clogging the arteries of Europe’s banking system. The global financial crisis and subsequent recession have left businesses and households in many countries with debts that they cannot repay. Nonperforming loans as a share of total loans in the EU have more than doubled since 2009, reaching €1 trillion—over 9 percent of the region’s …Read More
Hausmann, Ricardo, (2015), “Don’t Fear the IMF”, Project Syndicate, 28 Σεπτεμβρίου The International Monetary Fund is, in many places, the organization that everybody loves to hate. According to some, the IMF is bad for the poor, women, economic stability, and the environment. Joseph Stiglitz, whose influence is amplified by his Nobel Prize, blames the IMF for causing and then worsening the economic crises it was called on to resolve. The …Read More
