Sergio Focardi, author at Social Europe

About Sergio Focardi

Sergio M. Focardi is Professor of Finance at the Léonard De Vinci University, Paris-La Défense and author of Money: What It Is, How It’s Created, Who Gets It, and Why It Matters (London: Routledge).

Do Capitalists Still Need Consumers?

by Sergio Focardi on 18th September 2018

While it’s hard to come up with numbers, the delocalisation and outsourcing of production and other economic activities to low-cost countries have resulted in the loss of jobs and reduced purchasing power of workers in developed countries. The next wave of job loss is expected to be due to technology and, in particular, automation and […]

Symbolic Growth And Stagnant Wages

by Sergio Focardi on 31st May 2018

For decades, Western governments (and their economies) have been delivering real growth and economic well-being to their citizens. But changes that have occurred since the 1980s have made it increasingly difficult to distinguish real growth from nominal growth, while the well-being of the majority of citizens has failed to improve. At the beginning of the […]

The European Union is excellently equipped to pursue the most urgent issues facing the advanced world: combating environmental damage and climate change, coping with the massive aftermath of the coronavirus crisis, reforming globalisation, regulating financialised capitalism, reducing material inequalities and reconciling the future of work in a rapidly changing economy with workers’ needs for secure lives. But, argues Colin Crouch in this manifesto for a return to the ‘social Europe’ agenda, to achieve these goals the EU needs to face the two menaces stalking today’s politics: neoliberalism and xenophobic nationalism. To do so it must confront the weakness of social democracy, historically the main political protagonist of the causes of co-operation and inclusion on which the strategy depends.

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Living, working and COVID-19

This report presents the findings of the Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, carried out by Eurofound to capture the far-reaching implications of the pandemic for the way people live and work across Europe. The survey was fielded online, among respondents who were reached via Eurofound’s stakeholders and social media advertising. Two rounds have been carried out: one in April, when most member states were in lockdown, and one in July, when society and economies were slowly re-opening. The findings from the first round reflected widespread emotional distress, financial concern and low trust in institutions. Levels of concern abated somewhat in the second round, particularly among groups of respondents benefiting from support measures implemented during the pandemic. The results underline stark differences between countries and between socioeconomic groups that point to growing inequalities. They confirm the upsurge in teleworking across all countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the report explores what this means for work–life balance and job quality.

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Proposals for a reform of the EU's fiscal rules and economic governance

Debt-to-GDP ratios are set to rise significantly all over the world as a result of the coronavirus crisis. This will pose a huge challenge for the EU's member states and in particular the euro area countries, because of the strict fiscal rules. The IMK advocates a reform focused on appropriate fiscal rules that promote short-term macroeconomic stabilisation and long-term modernisation of the public capital stock, while still keeping the sustainability of public debt in mind. We propose an expenditure rule for non-cyclical, non-investment expenditure coupled with a Golden Rule for public investment. As a pragmatic solution, the permissible debt-to-GDP ratio should be increased to 90%, while escape clauses should apply during times of crisis. The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure should also be reformed. We advocate a Macroeconomic Dialogue to ensure compliance with the reformed rules and consistency of national strategies.

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A socially just transition through the European Green Deal?

The aim of this working paper is to provide a preliminary assessment of whether the European Green Deal constitutes a suitable policy framework to combine environmental and economic objectives with the pursuit of social fairness, thus ensuring a just transition towards more sustainable economies and societies. Such an assessment appears particularly relevant in a period in which the EU and its Member States are figuring out how to redesign their economies and societies in order to cope with the unprecedented social and economic crisis triggered by the Covid–19 pandemic.

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Do Capitalists Still Need Consumers?

Symbolic Growth And Stagnant Wages

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