Tag: Europe
Some euros are more equal than others
Gresham’s Law – bad money drives out good – dates from an era of metallic currency: debased coins circulated, genuine ones were hoarded.
France’s choice: naughty child or colourless adult?
The presidency of the French Republic is a job description written for one man – Charles de Gaulle – and no one else has since filled the post with much distinction.
Building can help Britain balance the books and boost jobs
Keynes famously advocated reducing unemployment by employing people to dig holes and fill them in again: today it would be enough to employ them to fill the potholes that are already there.
Why lashing governments to the mast will always prove futile
Governments will in the end always put voters ahead of prior commitments or external obligations. That democratic imperative has costs and benefits – but, overall, the benefits of popular accountability far exceed the cost.
Intelligence Squared
On the 7th February, John took part in an Intelligence Squared event entitled, 'What hope for the economy?', in which Evan Davis grilled a panel of eminent...
Taverna talk of fiscal union will remain just that
Financial markets are an effective discipline on profligate individuals and states because markets cannot easily be bullied or lobbied, and their threat to make the cost of funds prohibitive is effective.
It’s madness to follow a martingale betting strategy in Europe
If the eurozone had quickly recognised defeat in Greece, it would have suffered a manageable failure and learnt an important lesson for the future. Instead it has followed the martingale.
Eurozone Crisis
As the eurozone crisis deepens and political leaders flail in the face of the huge debts that have left financial institutions and member states...
Europe’s elite is fighting reality and will lose
The eurozone’s difficulties have been created by member states not markets, giving members more resources to fight markets makes things worse, not better.
What Europe can learn from Kissinger-style ambiguity
The skill of the statesman is to distinguish situations in which ambiguity makes coexistence possible from those that will make the future more troublesome. In this respect, politicians who have steered world affairs through the financial crisis have not served us well.