Grahl, J. & Lysandrou, P. (2014) “The proposed EU Financial Transactions Tax is both illogical and likely to be economically damaging“, LSE EUROPP, 09 Απριλίου.   In 2011, the European Commission proposed a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) to raise revenue from the financial sectors in EU countries following the financial crisis. To date, however, only 11 EU states have so far agreed to implement such a tax. John Grahl and …Read More

Legrain, P. (2014) “Europe’s Bogus Banking Union“, Project Syndicate, 08 Απριλίου.   LONDON – After a 16-hour marathon negotiating session ending on March 20, politicians, technocrats, and journalists were all keen to declare the deal on the final piece of Europe’s banking union a success. But appearances are deceptive. While the “banking union” may soon exist on paper, in practice the eurozone banking system is likely to remain fragmented along …Read More

Weeks, J. (2014) “Alter The European Union: A Conference In Helsinki For Progressive Change“, Social Europe Journal, 04 Απριλίου.   At the end of March a coalition of progressive parties and groups organized a meeting in Helsinki focusing on fostering change in the European Union (political program summarized here). For anyone seeking to transform the present EU of the 1% into an EU for the 99% (see my new book, …Read More

Bibow, J. (2014) “On The Alleged Pains of the Strong Euro“, Social Europe Journal, 03 Απριλίου.   Since its most recent low of $1.20, reached in the heat of the summer of 2012, the euro has appreciated by 15 percent against the US dollar and by more than 10 percent in inflation-adjusted terms against a broad basket of currencies representative of the euro area’s main trading partners. Amounting to a …Read More

Vihriälä, V. & Weder di Mauro, B. (2014) “Orderly debt reduction rather than permanent mutualisation is the way to go“, VoxEU Organisation, 02 Απριλίου.   The EZ debt overhang needs to be fixed. This column argues that making market discipline credible requires an orderly debt restructuring mechanism combined with a strictly regulated temporary mutualisation scheme or a well-designed debt conversion scheme. This combination could reduce the current debt overhang in …Read More

Smith, Y. (2014) “Understanding the Confidence Fairy“, MacroBusiness, 1 Απριλίου.   One strange claim in the economic debate that followed the financial crisis was the impact of uncertainty on the path of investment and subsequently the recovery in economic activity. Taking just one example, it was claimed here that “fiscal policy uncertainty has directly harmed the American economy by increasing the unemployment rate by 0.6%, or the equivalent of 900,000 …Read More

Piketty, T. (2014) “Kapital for the Twenty-First Century?“, Belknap Press, 2014, 671 pp.   What is “capital”? To Karl Marx, it was a social, political, and legal category—the means of control of the means of production by the dominant class. Capital could be money, it could be machines; it could be fixed and it could be variable. But the essence of capital was neither physical nor financial. It was the …Read More

Bordo, M. (2014) “TARGET Balances, Bretton Woods, and the Great Depression“, VoxEU Organisation, 21 Mαρτίου.   Since 2007, there has been a buildup of TARGET imbalances within the Eurosystem – growing liabilities of national central banks in the periphery matched by growing claims of central banks in the core. This column argues that, rather than signalling the collapse of the monetary system – as was the case for Bretton Woods …Read More

Frankel, J. (2014) “The ECB Should Do QE, Mario? Buy US Bonds, Not Eurobonds“, Άρθρο Γνώμης, VoxEU Organisation, 24 Μαρτίου. The Eurozone needs to further ease monetary policy because under the current low inflation and high unemployment periphery countries need to suffer painful deflation. However, the ECB faces challenges other central banks do not face. This column proposes a way to overcome some of these hurdles. It argues that the …Read More