Europe’s Opportunity in Hollande
Schulz, Martin. Rarely has an election resonated so widely across the European Union as the French presidential ballot has done. Rarely has a leadership change in one EU member state created expectations of a real policy shift. Remarkably, a new European demos and public sphere are emerging from the economic crisis. Europeans are recognizing how […]
Europe’s Misguided Search for Growth
Gros, Daniel. A few months ago, 25 of the 27 members of the European Union solemnly signed a treaty that committed them to enshrining tough deficit limits in their national constitutions. This so-called “fiscal compact” was the key condition to get Germany to agree to increase substantially the funding for the eurozone’s rescue funds, and […]
German Adjustment
Krugman, Paul. It has become clear that one of the main forces behind the insistence on austerity as the answer to Europe’s problems is the belief among many German opinion leaders that their own experience in the last decade shows the way. Here’s Josef Joffe: Why [should France emulate] the former German chancellor? Because he […]
Germany’s Neighborhood Watch
El-Erian, Mohamed. On a recent trip to Germany, I was struck by two distinct narratives. One narrative features a robust German economy with low unemployment, strong finances, and the right competitive position to exploit the most dynamic segments of global demand. The other narrative describes an economy that is encumbered by never-ending European debt crises […]
In search of symmetry in the eurozone
De Grauwe, Paul. The analysis in this Commentary provides strong evidence that the burden of the adjustments to the imbalances in the eurozone between the surplus and the deficit countries is borne almost exclusively by the deficit countries in the periphery. And although the European Commission has now been invested with the important responsibility of […]
The coming revolt against austerity
Wyplosz, Charles. Mindless austerity is losing policy credibility in some Eurozone nations. This column suggests governments shouldn’t mix long-term growth and fiscal discipline nor produce another Lisbon strategy. Instead, they should adopt a framework for fiscal policy cooperation, restructure debts, and remember that fiscal discipline is for the long run. Πηγή: Voxeu πλήρες κείμενο
Austerity has brought Europe to the brink again
Summers, Lawrence. Once again European efforts to contain crisis have fallen short. It was perhaps reasonable to hope that the European Central Bank’s commitment to provide nearly a trillion dollars in cheap three-year funding to banks would, if not resolve the crisis, contain it for a significant interval. Unfortunately, this has proved little more than […]
The Euro-Exit Taboo
Dadush, Uri. Stay or leave? Should Greece persist with its extreme austerity plan, or should it abandon the euro? What about Portugal? Spain? In mainstream political discourse, posing the question of euro exit is taboo. When Prime Minister Papandreou of Greece, an ardent European, unexpectedly proposed a national referendum on the matter (one he […]
Europe’s Zero-Sum Dilemma
Rachman, Gideon. Europe’s debt crisis is threatening a political order that has been built up over the course of more than a half century. It is still entirely possible—indeed likely—that the European single currency will not survive the crisis. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has predicted that if the euro collapses, the European Union will […]
How Richer States Finance Poorer Ones
Reinhardt, Uwe. From time to time I attend symposiums on the euro crisis. I find the topic fascinating in its own right, and it also provides therapeutic relief from the dreariness of health policy in the United States. In comparison with international banking and finance, the American health sector is functioning rather well. Πηγή: The […]