Social Europe articles on the economy

The “endless” 2008 crisis is producing difficult growth, excessive unemployment, increasing inequalities. All this is stimulating interest in the recurrent tendencies in capitalism to “secular stagnation”. The term was coined in 1938 by Alvin Hansen, who argued that the depression of the Thirties was not so much a severe cyclical crisis as a symptom of […]

The German saver is suffering! The European Central Bank ought to make policy for the Germans again! That naughty Mario Draghi; those poor Germans! Maybe we should just exit the EU; it’s en vogue at the moment, after all. Thus the lamentations sparked by interest rates on savings dropping to zero, and news that inflation […]

Brussels has been accused of “bending the rules” in its pursuit of Apple for €13 billion in taxes it says should have been paid in Ireland. But in truth it is the multinationals and their corporate lawyers and accountants who have twisted the rules on taxation almost out of existence. The tax system had been […]

The consensus that dominated macroeconomics from the 1980s, and framed the European institutions’ thinking in terms of macroeconomic governance, relegated fiscal policy to the dustbin of history. If anything, standard macroeconomic thinking relied on monetary policy to react to economic shocks. The 2008 crisis challenged this consensus, as monetary policy alone proved ineffective in counteracting […]

One of Italy’s main problems is the poor performance of its public administration. This contributes to Italy’s low international credibility and to the scant appeal that Italy has for foreign as well as domestic investors. A major organizational reform of the civil service cannot be delayed any longer. But any such reform will by no […]

The political turmoil that followed the Renzi government’s resignation after the results of Italy’s referendum on constitutional reforms, the hurried appointment of the new executive and the endless emergency of Monte dei Paschi overshadowed the letter that the European Commission sent on December 5th to the outgoing administration. In concise terms, the letter confirmed what […]

In the wake of increasing inequality across the OECD area, public debate over policies of redistribution has become more intensive. Large parts of the populations affected feel uneasy about widening gaps, even groups that have been favoured by this development, but few arguments beyond the moral one are advanced. To right-wing opinion-makers, the distribution of […]

The most urgent task of the new Gentiloni government is to solve the serious problem of Monte dei Paschi di Siena and other banks with recapitalization troubles – such as Popolare di Vicenza, Veneto Banca Carige, Banca Etruria, CariChieti, Banca delle Marche, and CariFerrara. Even the recapitalization of Unicredit, Italy’s biggest bank by assets, could […]

Year of Referendum Disasters In 2016 the European Union both as an organization and hope for a better and more peaceful future suffered at least two serious and possibly mortal blows: the British “in/out” referendum gave a direct hit, while the constitutional plebiscite five months later in Italy delivered a glancing blow that might yet […]

Eight years on from the global economic crisis, social inequality is rising in the majority of EU member states, according to recent studies. Even worse, the gap between the generations has widened considerably, as pensions and benefits for older people have not shrunk as much as incomes and opportunities for younger people. Unemployment, precarious lives, […]

2016 was already quite miserable in so many respects; 2017 promises to get even worse. Looking at the chamber of horrors President-elect Trump is putting together and assuming that he will indeed prove at any price that he is the maverick President he promised to be during the campaign, then Washington D.C. will turn into […]

The market-making matching of supply and demand – not any kind of sharing – defines online platforms. Extension of markets into new spheres may provide new opportunities, but it also undermines the key institution through which our societies organize protection of workers and set their pay: the employment relationship. Re-organisation of activities that traditionally relied […]