Blome, N., Pauly, C., Peter Schmitz, G. & Schult, C. (2014) “Mr. Europe? The Ghosts of Juncker’s Past Come Back to Haunt Him“, Der Spiegel Online, 10 November. He only recently took office as European Commission president, but now, Jean-Claude Juncker is under pressure due to potentially illegal tax deals forged in Luxembourg during his stint as the country’s prime minister. Some believe he may have to resign. Jean-Claude …Read More
Kreutz, J. (2014) “Why the EU’s commitment to preventing human rights abuses abroad is more than just rhetoric“, LSE EUROPP, 10 November. Is EU foreign policy genuinely influenced by humanitarian concerns or are such claims merely used to add legitimacy to traditional power politics? Joakim Kreutz uses data on EU foreign policy actions between 1989 and 2008 to assess the extent to which human rights concerns have played a …Read More
Theodoropoulou, S. (2014) “Structural Reforms Will Not Mitigate The Risk Of Deflation In Europe“, Social Europe Journal, 10 November. In a speech delivered at the Central Bank of Latvia on October 17th, Benoit Coeuré, member of the executive board of the ECB and apparently one of the currently few close confidants of Mario Draghi, argued that speeding up the pace of structural reforms in the Eurozone could be key …Read More
Muellbauer, J. (2014) “Quantitative Easing for the People“, Project Syndicate, 05 November. It is now a near certainty that, by the end of this year, falling energy and commodity prices will push annual inflation in the Eurozone below zero – well under the European Central Bank’s target of near 2%. Rather than continue to allow misguided conventional thinking, centered on German economic ideology, to impede effective action, the ECB …Read More
The Editors (2014) “What’s Bad for Germany Could Be Good for Europe“, Bloomberg View, 04 November. Even those familiar with Europe’s plight will find the latest economic forecasts grim reading. You thought the outlook for the euro area was bad already. It’s getting worse, says the European Commission. That said, Europe works in mysterious ways. In this deepening pessimism, there might just be grounds for optimism. The projections make …Read More
O’Neill, J. (2014) “A Crazy Idea About Italy“, Bloomberg View, 05 Νοεμβρίου. I’ve spent a good deal of my 35 years as an economic and financial analyst puzzling over Italy. Studying its economy was my first assignment in this business — as a matter of fact, Italy was the first foreign country I ever flew to. I’m just back from a vacation in Puglia and Basilicata. Over the decades, …Read More
Gilbert, Μ. (2014) “ECB Needs Japanese Lessons“, Bloomberg View, 05 November. Economists like to warn about Japanification, the risk that a country will follow the desultory experience of Japan, which slumped into deflation in 1999 and for all intents never climbed out. As Europe slides closer to deflation, the European Central Bank should heed the historical experience and the current efforts by the Bank of Japan to resuscitate growth. …Read More
Interview with R. Keohane (2014) Five minutes with Robert O. Keohane: “We shouldn’t fool ourselves by believing that global governance will soon be made democratic”, LSE EUROPP, 05 November. Can global governance through organisations such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization ever be made properly democratic? In an interview with EUROPP’s editor Stuart Brown, Robert O. Keohane discusses the problems with establishing global democratic governance, the …Read More
Gopinath, G. (2014) “The Draghi Put on Trial“, Project Syndicate, 03 November. In the summer of 2012, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro, including purchasing “unlimited” amounts of struggling governments’ bonds. The move, which has come to be known as the “Draghi put,” almost immediately reduced borrowing costs for Spain and Italy, and is widely touted as having pulled …Read More
Mody, Α. (2014) “Pulling the eurozone back from the brink- whatever its flaws, OMT is the closest thing to a safety net the eurozone has“, Bruegel Institute, 02 November. On October 14, as yet another financial storm gathered over Europe, the European Court of Justice convened in Luxembourg. In the coming months, the ECJ will assess the German Constitutional Court’s ruling that the European Central Bank’s “outright monetary transactions” (OMT) scheme …Read More
