Ha-Joon Chang (2015) “What does it really mean to be ‘pro-business’?“, The Guardian, 03 Μαρτίου. Despite the best efforts of some of its members to discredit it with market rigging, tax avoidance, and unjustified bonuses, the business community is still held in awe in Britain. Any suggestion of higher taxes for top earners or tougher regulations on the abuse of market power is howled down as dangerously anti-business. Politicians …Read More
Görlach, Α. (2015) “The critical junction – Unless Germany charts a new business course, it will lose out to the rest of the world economy“, The European Magazine, 02 Μαρτίου. Sigmar Gabriel lives in the 19th century. For the German Minister for Economic Affairs, the list of what matters isn’t long: industry, German cars and so forth. Digital innovation? New business models? Not for him. He is, rather, stirring …Read More
Conversation by Lars Mensel and Max Tholl with Jeremy Rifkin: “We are glimpsing at the outlines of a new economic system”, The European Magazine, 25 Φεβρουαρίου 2015. Economist and bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin argues that our grandchildren will pity our working conditions and that a bright future is not a utopian dream but an achievable goal. The European: Mr. Rifkin, the visions you formulate in your recent book “The …Read More
Neil, Irwin, (2015), “Η τελευταία και καλύτερη ελπίδα της Ευρώπης”, Η Καθημερινή, 23 Ιανουαρίου. Το πρόγραμμα που ανακοίνωσε χθες ο Μάριο Ντράγκι και αποτελεί προσπάθεια να ανασυρθεί η ευρωπαϊκή οικονομία από την ύφεση έρχεται με καθυστέρηση μηνών, είναι μικρό σε σύγκριση με τα αντίστοιχα σε ΗΠΑ και Ιαπωνία, και περίπλοκο για να ικανοποιήσει πολιτικές σκοπιμότητες. Ισως, όμως, είναι η τελευταία και καλύτερη ελπίδα της Ευρώπης να μη διολισθήσει σε μία …Read More
Gros, Daniel, (2015), “Grexit 2015: A primer”, CEPS Commentaries, 23 Ιανουαρίου. In the run-up to the Greek elections on January 25th and the subsequent renegotiation of the country’s economic adjustment programme with the troika, Daniel Gros writes in this Commentary that “nobody officially wants Grexit”: not Syriza, which wants Greece to stay in the euro. It is ‘only’ asking for a reduction in Greece’s official debt and an end to …Read More
Wolff, Guntram, Merler, Silvia, (2015), “The ECB has fired its bazooka” , Bruegel, 23 Ιανουαρίου. The ECB announced today an expansion of its asset purchases, to include securities issued by European agencies and institutions, as well as central government in the euro area. Purchases are intended to be continued until at least September 2016 and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of …Read More
Jeffrey D. Sachs, (2015), “The ECB’s New Macroeconomic Realism”, Project Syndicate, 23 Ιανουαρίου. The European Central Bank has finally launched a policy of quantitative easing (QE). The key question at this stage is whether Germany will give the ECB the freedom of maneuver needed to carry out this monetary expansion with sufficient boldness. Though QE cannot produce long-term growth, it can do much to end the ongoing recession that has …Read More
Scholtens, B. (2015) “Falling oil prices should help Europe’s ailing economies, but the wider implications of the price drop remain to be seen“, LSE EUROPP, 21 Ιανουαρίου. How will the drop in oil prices affect European economies? As Bert Scholtens writes, the general expectation is that a fall in oil prices should help economic growth across Europe, but there are nevertheless a number of key factors which play an …Read More
Cowen, Τ. (2015) “Which economic theories are especially widely misunderstood?“, Marginal Revolution Blog, 20 Ιανουαρίου. A lot of them are, actually. The efficient markets hypothesis might be one, as I’m not sure I understand it myself! (Would the existence of just one investor “beating the market” disprove it? Probably not, but then how many are needed? How many of them have to beat the market “for the right reasons”? …Read More
Otero Iglesias, Μ. (2015) “We should be wary of removing the ECB from the troika to facilitate the use of outright monetary transactions“, LSE EUROPP, 19 Ιανουαρίου. A key legal debate in the context of the Eurozone crisis is whether so called ‘Outright Monetary Transactions’(OMT), which would allow the European Central Bank (ECB) to buy unlimited numbers of government bonds in secondary markets, are compatible with European law. The …Read More
