Navarro, Vicente, (2016), “Is The Nation-State And Its Welfare State Dead? A Critique Of Varoufakis”, Social Europe, 4 Αugust I always read the writings of Mr. Varoufakis with great interest, and I frequently find myself in agreement, particularly in his criticism of the Troika (the International Monetary Fund, European Commission, and European Central Bank) and of the Eurogroup (the Ministers of Economy and Finances of the European Union). I also …Read More

Feld, Lars, Schmidt, Christoph, Schnabel, Isabel, Wieland, Volker, (2016), “Unity in diversity: The way forward for Europe”, Voxeu, 22 Αugust It has been suggested that the vote for Brexit marks the first step of disintegration in Europe. This column argues that if the European integration process is pursued wisely, it still carries the promise of enduring peace and growing prosperity. But EU policymakers must devise a process of integration that strengthens …Read More

Aiyar, Shekhar, Ebeke, Christian, Shao, Xiaobo, (2016), “The Euro Area Workforce is Aging, Costing Growth”, iMF-direct, 17 August In parallel to the aging of the general population, the workforce in the euro area is also growing older. This could cause productivity growth to decline in the years ahead, raising another policy challenge for governments already dealing with legacies from the crisis such as high unemployment and debt. Relevant Posts Barslund, Mikkel, Busse, Matthias, …Read More

Djankov, Simeon, (2016), “Is Europe spending too much?”, LSE Europpblog, 28 July Yes, it is, according to Simeon Djankov. He notes that public expenditures had risen to dangerously high levels in some Southern and Western European countries even prior to the eurozone crisis and argues that the European Central Bank’s loose monetary policy since 2012 has provided public sectors with little incentive to modernise. This, in turn, may be helping to fuel Eurosceptic …Read More