Mitchell, B. (2015) “Denmark should abandon its euro peg, Bill Mitchell Blog, 21 Ιανουαρίου.   In my soon-to-be-published book on the Eurozone I examined the case of Denmark in some detail in the context of the evolution of the European Monetary System, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), and the ratification process of the Treaty of Maastricht. Denmark was a participant in all the attempts to maintain fixed exchange rates …Read More

Gaillard, E. & Straathof, B. (2015) “Will R&D tax incentives get Europe growing again?“, VoxEU Organisation, 20 Ιανουαρίου.   Tax incentives have become a common policy tool for encouraging firms to spend more on research and development – and the recession has further raised interest in the effectiveness of this policy. This column highlights a new review of the empirical evidence, which suggests that fiscal incentives for R&D only modestly …Read More

Mitchell, B. (2015) “SNB decision tells us that the crisis in entering a new phase“, Bill Mitchell Blog, 19 Ιανουαρίου.   Switzerland – home of the secret bank vaults, which house treasures stolen from people (particularly the Jewish victims) by the Nazis during WW2 and ill-gotten cash by capitalists who wish to evade scrutiny of prudential and tax authorities of their domiciled nations. Now it is the canary, which has …Read More

Mitchell, B. (2015) “Friday lay day – more snake oil from Brussels“, Bill Mitchell Blog, 16 Ιανουαρίου.   It’s my Friday lay day blog. I am in Sri Lanka at present and will have some reports about that over the next 14 odd days. I was amazed overnight by the comments from IMF boss Lagarde who made overt political statements in an upcoming election year by claiming that David Cameron …Read More

Darvas, Ζ. (2015) “The convergence dream 25 years on – half of the former communist countries did not converge to advanced EU countries from 1989-2014“, Bruegel Institute, 06 Ιανουαρίου.   The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall was widely celebrated – rightly so. The fall of communism opened the way for democracy, personal freedoms, security, lawfulness, fairness and economic efficiency, among others. The transition also raised hopes that …Read More