Archive

  • How to keep Britain in the EU

    How to keep Britain in the EU

    At a time when some governments are pushing for a more integrated European Union, the British are becoming more eurosceptic. This contradiction increases the likelihood of Britain eventually leaving the EU – an outcome that, if current trends continue, is thoroughly plausible.

  • Stable public finances require stronger business investment

    Stable public finances require stronger business investment

    Economic recovery in Europe is being held back by the unprecedented weakness of business investment. Despite a secular decline in business taxation and labour market reforms that have boosted the power of capital relative to labour, the ratio of investment-to-GDP across the EU is at a 60 year low.

  • A new political bargain in Afghanistan

    A new political bargain in Afghanistan

    Reports by official US agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office, make it crystal clear: the Afghan government is stealing money from the international community and from the Afghan people, on an alarming scale. US and European officials in Kabul are dismayed but seem paralysed: their response is to vow to ‘stay the course’.

  • Needed: A growth strategy for Europe file thumbnail

    Needed: A growth strategy for Europe

    The struggle to address the eurozone crisis means that Europe's unprecedented economic malaise is receiving far too little attention. To the extent that the EU has a growth strategy it relies heavily on the adoption of structural reforms in the crisis-hit eurozone economies.

  • Why an EU financial transations tax is a red herring file thumbnail

    Why an EU financial transactions tax is a red herring

    Ever since it was first mooted in the 1970s, a financial transactions tax (FTT) has often been thought of as an interesting idea that cannot work in practice (because it needs to be adopted universally if it is not to be undermined by tax arbitrage).

  • The US declares peace in Europe, prematurely file thumbnail

    The US declares peace in Europe, prematurely

    The Pentagon's 'strategic guidance', released on January 5th, makes three key changes: it establishes Asia as the focus of US military efforts, with the Middle East a close second. It foresees fewer 'nation-building'

  • Monnet loses to de Gaulle

    Monnet loses to de Gaulle

    The euro crisis is transforming the balance of power in Europe. Germany is emerging, for the first time in the EU’s history, as the unquestioned leader. France is having to adjust to a subordinate role. The euro countries are likely to integrate more closely, leading to a two-speed Europe. Britain is moving to the margins.

  • The ECB must stand behind the euro

    The ECB must stand behind the euro

    The eurozone is now subject to a full-blown run on its bond market. Spanish and Italian borrowing costs are now higher than those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal when they were forced to seek bail-outs from the EU and IMF. The crisis has spread to Belgium and France, and even to Austria, Finland and the Netherlands.