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.
Economy
Analysis and debate on the European economy: growth and investment, fiscal and monetary policy, trade, industry and inequality.
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.
Political leaders sabotaging corporate sustainability
EU member-state governments have flinched at the challenge of enforcing responsible business conduct.
Inflation: free markets or freeriding?
Susanne Wixforth and Kaoutar Haddouti
Companies with market power are increasing prices beyond rising energy costs—because they can.
Global income inequality: time to revise the elephant
New data on inequality show probably the greatest reshuffling of world incomes since the industrial revolution, Branko Milanovic writes.
Unpacking self-employment ‘flexibility’
Platform companies trumpet the ‘freedom’ their ‘independent contractors’ enjoy. They misrepresent what freedom is.
The monetary tightening trap
The over-reliance on interest-rate increases will likely lead to economic disaster in low- and middle-income countries.
Pay gaps between firms driving wage inequality
Inter-firm differences are not only widening wage gaps but also threaten wider social division among workers.
Setting human-rights due diligence back on track
A carve-out for the finance sector would water down the ambition of the EU’s human-rights due-diligence legislation.
Interest-rate rises versus the public interest
In going along with rate rises, European governments are saving the European Central Bank—not their societies.
Almost-new fiscal rules for an old Europe
The proposed new fiscal rules may represent modest steps from the status quo. But they are in the right direction.
General strike in Belgium
Marie-Hélène Ska, Miranda Ulens and Olivier Valentin
Belgian trade union confederations this week led strikes and other actions to challenge the impact of inflation on purchasing power.
Using common strengths to overcome the crisis
Patrick Kaczmarczyk and Klaus Seipp
Europe needs to move from fear of the ‘moral hazard’ of fiscal co-operation to confidence in its collective benefits.