Görlach, Α. (2015) “The critical junction – Unless Germany charts a new business course, it will lose out to the rest of the world economy“, The European Magazine, 02 March. Sigmar Gabriel lives in the 19th century. For the German Minister for Economic Affairs, the list of what matters isn’t long: industry, German cars and so forth. Digital innovation? New business models? Not for him. He is, rather, stirring …Read More
Conversation by Lars Mensel and Max Tholl with Jeremy Rifkin: “We are glimpsing at the outlines of a new economic system”, The European Magazine, 25 February 2015. Economist and bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin argues that our grandchildren will pity our working conditions and that a bright future is not a utopian dream but an achievable goal. The European: Mr. Rifkin, the visions you formulate in your recent book “The …Read More
Gros, Daniel, (2015), “Grexit 2015: A primer”, CEPS Commentaries, 23 January. In the run-up to the Greek elections on January 25th and the subsequent renegotiation of the country’s economic adjustment programme with the troika, Daniel Gros writes in this Commentary that “nobody officially wants Grexit”: not Syriza, which wants Greece to stay in the euro. It is ‘only’ asking for a reduction in Greece’s official debt and an end to …Read More
Wolff, Guntram, Merler, Silvia, (2015), “The ECB has fired its bazooka” , Bruegel, 23 January. The ECB announced today an expansion of its asset purchases, to include securities issued by European agencies and institutions, as well as central government in the euro area. Purchases are intended to be continued until at least September 2016 and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of …Read More
Jeffrey D. Sachs, (2015), “The ECB’s New Macroeconomic Realism”, Project Syndicate, 23 January. The European Central Bank has finally launched a policy of quantitative easing (QE). The key question at this stage is whether Germany will give the ECB the freedom of maneuver needed to carry out this monetary expansion with sufficient boldness. Though QE cannot produce long-term growth, it can do much to end the ongoing recession that has …Read More
Scholtens, B. (2015) “Falling oil prices should help Europe’s ailing economies, but the wider implications of the price drop remain to be seen“, LSE EUROPP, 21 January. How will the drop in oil prices affect European economies? As Bert Scholtens writes, the general expectation is that a fall in oil prices should help economic growth across Europe, but there are nevertheless a number of key factors which play an …Read More
Cowen, Τ. (2015) “Which economic theories are especially widely misunderstood?“, Marginal Revolution Blog, 20 January. 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
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 January. 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
Conversation by Martin Eiermann with Parag Khanna: “The fragmentation of power is irreversible”, The European Magazine, 16 January 2015. The end of the nation-state as we know it: Parag Khanna discusses the path towards global connectivity and why we have to shift from Western history to global history. The European: Mr. Khanna, especially in Europe, we’re witnessing a resurgence of regionalist or nationalist thinking that seems to cast doubt …Read More
Brzeski, C. (2015) “Calling the eurozone’s bluff?“, EU Observer Opinion, 14 January. Next week’s events have the clear potential to plant the seeds for another eurozone crisis. Not an immediate one with sharp market turmoil, but rather a creeping one: the sneaking and growing awareness that the eurozone is far from being perfect. On 22 January, the European Central Bank (ECB) will plant the first seed. It will be …Read More
