Gilbert, M. (2014) “ECB Gets a Small Win“, Bloomberg View, 10 October.   The European Central Bank has been justifiably criticized for its claim that the magic of asset-backed bonds can reverse Europe’s slump back into recession. It got some support, though, from an unlikely source this week — the market for car loans in Finland. By the end of the year, Spain’s Banco Santander plans to bundle together a …Read More

Seumas Milne, “Europe’s sea of death for migrants is a result of war and escalating inequality“, The Guardian, Thursday 9 October 2014.   The carnage on our borders will only grow without a radical shift from an iniquitous and failed system The Mediterranean has become Europe’s sea of death. More than 3,000 refugees and migrants have already been killed this year trying to escape war and poverty in Africa and …Read More

Saltman, R. (2014) “Pragmatism is beginning to trump ideology in Europe’s ‘public-private’ debate over healthcare“, LSE EUROPP, 09 October.   The merits of public vs private healthcare have traditionally formed one of the key ideological divisions between European political parties. Richard B. Saltman writes that while this debate has often been exceptionally heated, over the last few decades a number of European countries have started to take a more pragmatic …Read More

Gros, D. (2014) “The ECB’s Faulty Weapon“, Project Syndicate, 07 October.   With inflation in the eurozone stubbornly remaining on a downward trajectory, pressure on the European Central Bank to do “something” to prevent outright deflation is growing. This “something” is usually understood to be massive asset purchases, or quantitative easing (QE). But would QE actually do the trick? The discussion has so far followed easily predictable national patterns: Creditor …Read More

Ilargi Meijer, R. (2014) “Germany’s Bad Numbers Are Great News For All Of Us“, The Automatic Earth Blog, 07 October.   Something’s happening in Europe that I would like to cheer and encourage at the top of my lungs. While only yesterday, most European leaders, the ECB and the IMF were busy chiding Germany for not lowering taxes or increasing government investment in its economy, today’s release of German economic …Read More

Mitchell, B. (2014) “The myopia of neo-liberalism and the IMF is now evident to all“, Mainly Macro Blog, 08 October.   The IMF published its October – World Economic Outlook – yesterday (October 7, 2014) and the news isn’t good. And remember this is the IMF, which is prone to overestimating growth, especially in times of fiscal austerity. What we are now seeing in these publications is recognition that economies …Read More

Oomsels, P. (2014) Better together – a new hope for a federal Europe, EU Observer, 08 October.   The victory of the No in the referendum on Scotland’s independence has saved the United Kingdom. However, it is clear that post-referendum UK will be different from pre-referendum UK. This is because, after promises of further devolution of competences made by Westminster, the Scottish No to independence can only be interpreted as …Read More

Saraceno, F. (2014) “The Lost Consistency of European Policy Makers“, Sparse Thoughts of a Gloomy European Economist Blog, 06 October.   Just a quick note on something that went surprisingly unnoticed so far. After Draghi’s speech in Jackson Hole, a new consensus seems to have developed among European policy makers, based on three propositions: Europe suffers from deficient aggregate demand Monetary policy has lost traction Investment is key, both as a countercyclical …Read More