The role of public debt in the ‘new normal’
A Schumpeterian perspective provides new insights for fiscal policy in Europe, Peter Bofinger writes.
Economy
Analysis and debate on the European economy: growth and investment, fiscal and monetary policy, trade, industry and inequality.
Social dialogue in central and eastern Europe
Union recognition can be a tough battle in EU member states in central and eastern Europe.
Military secrets and the World Trade Organization
A world at peace depends on making knowledge which could be of military as well as commercial value a public good.
Behind Britain’s strike wave
The Tory government, Paul Mason writes, is a victim of the skills shortages its ‘free markets’ have engendered.
Unions are giving workers a European voice in the crisis
Isabelle Barthès and Patricia Velicu
Trade unions have been winning battles across Europe to halt the erosion of real wages but can’t win this war alone.
Corporate power: arbitrage in a fractured world
At Davos the corporate elite are discussing a more co-operative world—yet their arbitrage relies on its rifts.
How not to deal with a debt crisis
Jayati Ghosh warns against historically disastrous approaches to the sovereign-debt crisis hitting low- and middle-income countries.
Will NextGenerationEU assist Europe’s cohesion?
Addressing Europe’s huge challenges requires treating Europe as more than the sum of its national parts.
Gendering labour time—regulating domestic work
Too few countries have ratified the ILO convention on domestic work. Too many don’t see the need.
Democracy and the future of work
Anxiety about the state of democracy amid political polarisation should direct us to an unexpected answer—economic citizenship.
Pay transparency yes, but we need more for equal pay
The gender pay gap is stubborn because several factors underpin it. Action is needed on all of them.
A feminist view of working-time reductions
Reducing working time is necessary to decouple work from growth. Well designed, it could redistribute care more evenly.
The digital euro: a flawed concept doomed to flop
Peter Bofinger argues that on the ‘digital euro’ the European Central Bank has dug itself into a hole it would do best to vacate.
ECB lobbies for banks, instead of supervising them
The ECB has taken upon itself to challenge the Spanish government over a temporary tax on the profits of commercial banks.
Social-ecological public procurement
Susanne Wixforth and Christian Berger
The vast sums disbursed in procurement and subsidies by public institutions must lever good work amid the green transition.
Taxing super-profits to beat inflation, defend rights
Pandemics, wars and recessions do not exempt states from human-rights commitments. They must tax multinationals and the richest more to protect the most vulnerable.