Friedman, G. (2015) “The European Union, Nationalism and the Crisis of Europe“, STRATFOR, 20 Ιανουαρίου. Last week, I wrote about the crisis of Islamic radicalism and the problem of European nationalism. This week’s events give me the opportunity to address the question of European nationalism again, this time from the standpoint of the European Union and the European Central Bank, using a term that only an economist could invent: …Read More
Will R&D tax incentives get Europe growing again?
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
World Economic Outlook Update
World Economic Outlook Update, International Monetary Fund, Ιανουάριος 2015. Cross Currents Global growth will receive a boost from lower oil prices, which reflect to an important extent higher supply. But this boost is projected to be more than offset by negative factors, including investment weakness as adjustment to diminished expectations about medium-term growth continues in many advanced and emerging market economies. Global growth in 2015–16 is projected at 3.5 …Read More
World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2015 (full report)
World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2015 (full report), International Labour Organization, Ιανουάριος 2015. Summary Renewed turbulence over the employment horizon The world economy continues to expand at rates well below the trends that preceded the advent of the global crisis in 2008 and is unable to close the significant employment and social gaps that have emerged. The challenge of bringing unemployment and underemployment back to pre-crisis levels …Read More
Which economic theories are especially widely misunderstood?
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
Explaining the global trade slowdown
Constantinescu, C., Mattoo, A. & Ruta, M. (2015) “Explaining the global trade slowdown“, VoxEU Organisation, 18 Ιανουαρίου. Not only is world trade lower than its pre-Crisis level, but it is also growing slower than GDP. This column examines the relationship between trade and GDP in the last four decades. The findings indicate that roughly half of the slowdown is driven by structural rather than cyclical factors. Trade itself has …Read More
Greece will remain in the euro for now
Odendahl, C. & Tilford, S. (2015) “Greece will remain in the euro for now“, Centre for European Reform, 16 Ιανουαρίου. Greece will hold a snap election on January 25th, after the country’s parliament failed to elect a new president with the necessary majority. Syriza, a left-wing party (or rather a coalition of parties) led by Alexis Tsipras, currently leads the polls. Given Syriza’s outspoken criticism of Greek economic and …Read More
Greek Elections, Democracy, Political Trilemma, and all that
Rodrik, D. (2015) “Greek Elections, Democracy, Political Trilemma, and all that“, Social Europe Journal, 08 Ιανουαρίου. Two-and-a-half years ago I wrote a short piece titled “The End of the World as We Know It” which began like this: “Consider the following scenario. After a victory by the left-wing Syriza party, Greece’s new government announces that it wants to renegotiate the terms of its agreement with the International Monetary Fund and the …Read More
We should be wary of removing the ECB from the troika to facilitate the use of outright monetary transactions
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
SNB decision tells us that the crisis in entering a new phase
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