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Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger is professor of economics at Würzburg University and a former member of the German Council of Economic Experts.

Germany’s Misguided War on Baby Boomers

Peter Bofinger

A prominent economist's attack on an entire generation ignores economic facts and threatens social cohesion.

Europe’s Euro Ambition: A Risky Bid for “Exorbitant Privilege”

Peter Bofinger

Christine Lagarde seeks a greater international role for the euro, but Europe's economic realities present a complex challenge.

Germany Ditches Debt Brake—A Fiscal Revolution Begins

Peter Bofinger

Germany scraps its debt brake, unleashing a 500-billion-euro investment plan that could transform infrastructure, defence, and economic growth.

Headline about financial crash of 2008

Capital-markets union: a panacea for Europe?

Peter Bofinger

Financial integration is not the problem, writes Peter Bofinger. It is the still national segmentation of government bonds.

Time for supply-side policy: Thatcher versus Schumpeter

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger explains what lies behind the conflict within Germany’s Ampelkoalition on economic policy.

ECB: now is the time for normalisation

Peter Bofinger

Europe needs massive investment, Peter Bofinger writes. Yet the ECB’s restrictive monetary stance means it is set to fall this year.

Germany,sick man,austerity,Constitutional Court

Germany: the ‘sick man’ of Europe—but ‘dumb’ as well?

Peter Bofinger

The austerity package stemming from an adverse Constitutional Court ruling, Peter Bofinger writes, defies logic.

Germany,sick,economic

Germany’s true economic disease

Peter Bofinger

Germany is indeed ‘sick’, Peter Bofinger writes—but not for the reason most commentators think.

ECB,Lagarde,president

ECB president Lagarde: has she become unstoppable?

Peter Bofinger

Asserting the need for further interest rate rises, Peter Bofinger writes, is not the same as evidencing them.

Credit Suisse,CS,UBS,regulation

The failure of Credit Suisse—not just a one-off

Peter Bofinger

The bank was mismanaged but its collapse, Peter Bofinger writes, reveals a system of regulation with as many holes as a Swiss cheese.

debt,Schumpeter

The role of public debt in the ‘new normal’

Peter Bofinger

A Schumpeterian perspective provides new insights for fiscal policy in Europe, Peter Bofinger writes.

European Central Bank,ECB,digital euro

The digital euro: a flawed concept doomed to flop

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger argues that on the ‘digital euro’ the European Central Bank has dug itself into a hole it would do best to vacate.

A noble award for a ‘popular misconception’

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger questions last week’s award of a prestigious economics prize to an orthodox school which could not anticipate the 2008 crash.

inflation,prices,energy,loan,credit,households

Inflation: saving households from insolvency

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger argues that state guarantees of loans to households could cushion the price shock at negligible cost.

eurozone,euro area,ECB,European Central Bank,inflation,interest rates

Return to positive interest rates requires a safety net

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger explains how inflation in the eurozone can be tempered without jeopardising recovery.

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Spring Issues

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out!

It is time to take action and to forge a path towards a Socialist renewal. European Socialists struggle to balance their responsibilities with the need to take bold positions and actions in the face of many major crises, while far-right political parties are increasingly gaining ground. Against this background, we offer European progressive forces food for thought on projecting themselves into the future.

Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss the transformative power of European Social Democracy, examine the far right’s efforts to redesign education systems to serve its own political agenda and highlight the growing threat of anti-gender movements to LGBTIQ+ rights – among other pressing topics.

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WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the European Minimum Wage Directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50% of the average wage.

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Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity

Cohesion Policy seeks to foster balanced development and reduce economic, social, and territorial disparities, focusing on rural areas, regions in industrial transition, and those with severe or permanent natural or demographic disadvantages, including outermost, sparsely populated, island, cross-border, and mountain regions.

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