Leron, Nicolas, Aglietta, Michel, (2015), “The Eurozone: Looking For The Sovereign”, Social Europe Journal, 11 September The Eurozone – because it remains an incomplete construct – has reached a critical point where its very existence is at stake. The Greek crisis and its never-ending drama, with the July 5 referendum, the “Grexit” strategy of some member states, the July 13 in extremis agreement and the vote in favour of a third aid …Read More
Economist, (2015), “Why the Fed targets 2% inflation”, The Economist explains, 13 September ON SEPTEMBER 17th the Federal Reserve will conclude a two-day, rate-setting meeting at which it just might raise its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than nine years. Arguing in favour of a hike is the low unemployment rate, which fell to 5.1% in August. Arguing against it is the rate of inflation which, …Read More
El Agraa, Ali, (2015), “The European Union Illuminated-Its Nature, Importance and Future”, Economics Series, Palgrave-Macmillan publications, May 2015 The EU is under stress. Many believe in the euro’s demise because they blame it for the 2008 financial crisis and the unwelcome austerity measures. Many resent the immigrants from the new EU member states, threatening the survival of the Single European Market (SEM). Many complain of a ‘Brussels diktat’, seeking an escape …Read More
Frasher, Michelle, (2015), “Transatlantic Politics and the Transformation of the International Monetary System”, European Union Series, Routledge publications, 8 September With original archival documents and interviews from the US and Europe, Michelle Frasher brings the reader into the negotiating room with American, German, and French officials as they confronted the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary system and made decisions that affected the course of European integration and the contemporary …Read More
Rodrik, Dani, (2015), “Economists vs. Economics”, Project Syndicate, 10 September Ever since the late nineteenth century, when economics, increasingly embracing mathematics and statistics, developed scientific pretensions, its practitioners have been accused of a variety of sins. The charges – including hubris, neglect of social goals beyond incomes, excessive attention to formal techniques, and failure to predict major economic developments such as financial crises – have usually come from outsiders, or …Read More
Pasricha, Gurnain, Falagiarda, Matteo, Bijsterbosch, Martin, Aizenman, Joshua, (2015), “Domestic and multilateral effects of capital controls in emerging markets”, ECB Working Paper, No. 1844, August Using a novel dataset on changes in capital controls and currency-based prudential measures in 17 major emerging market economies (EMEs) over the period 2001-2011, this paper provides new evidence on domestic and multilateral (or spillover) effects of capital controls before and after the global financial crisis. Our results, based on panel VARs, suggest that capital …Read More
Janssen, Ronald, (2015), “The German Minimum Wage Is Not A Job Killer”, Social Europe Journal, 9 September Mainstream economists excel in scaremongering about the dismal effects any policy that tries to correct market forces may have on economic performance. By arguing that such a policy will destroy jobs, things are even turned upside down. Because of the presumed job losses, social policy suddenly becomes anything but social while liberal economic policy …Read More
Amador, João, Di Mauro, Filippo, (2015), “The age of global value chains”, Voxeu, 9 September There is an urgent need for policymakers to fully acknowledge the extent to which conventional indicators related to gross trade are severely flawed as policy benchmarks because they fail to take into account the existence of global value chains and their increasing role in shaping the global economy. This column, which introduces a new Vox ebook, urges …Read More
Badinger, Harald, Nitch, Volker, (2015), “Routledge Handbook of the Economics of European Integration”, Routledge publications, European Union Series, 30 September The aim of this book is twofold. Firstly, the text illustrates the broad and diverse range of issues associated with European integration, and lastly, the key approaches and findings are summarised. Since institutional integration in Europe is an ongoing process, with possibly frequent and sometimes rapid changes, the chapters are …Read More
Otero-Iglesias, Miguel, (2015), “The Euro, The Dollar and the Global Financial Crisis”, Routledge publications, European Union Series, 18 October Drawing on Chartalist and Constructivist theories of money, the author provides a systematic approach to studying global currency dynamics and presents extensive original empirical data on financial elites in China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Brazil. The author demonstrates, amongst other things, how the gradual ascendance of a structurally flawed currency …Read More
