Joseph Stiglitz after the Italian elections

Joseph Stiglitz says that Europe needs:

1. ... greater fiscal federalism, not just centralized oversight of national budgets.
2. ...banking union, too. But it needs to be a real union, with common deposit insurance and common resolution procedures, as well as common supervision. and
3. ...Eurobonds
4. ,,, wage increases in Germany and industrial policies that promote exports and productivity in Europe’s periphery

No comment, just emphasis

Συνέδριο ΠΑΣΟΚ ..... ούτε κυμματάκια;

Ένα συνέδριο κόμματος έχει τους εξής κύριους και ελάχιστους στόχους:

1. Αναθεώρηση και επικαιροποίηση των αρχών του. Έχει να κάνει με τους στρατηγικούς στόχους, όχι τους δικούς του αποκλειστικά, αλλά αυτούς που προτείνει στην κοινωνία. Απλές, σταράτες διατυπώσεις για να ξέρει ο πολίτης γιατί συμφωνεί ή διαφωνεί και να μπορεί να εκτιμά τις όποιες πολιτικές θέσεις άν είναι συμβατές με τις δηλωμένες αρχές.
2. Επικαιροποίηση της οργανωτικής δομής του, και
3. Ανανέωση/εκλογή οργάνων.

Το <1> είναι sine qua non, ιδιαίτερα στην κρίσιμη φάση που περνάει. Παρ' όλα αυτά .... ξεχάστηκε μέσα στην φούρια της ίντριγκας και των τακτικίστικων ελιγμών.

Κρίμα... 

Ireland is about to exit the programme

James Mackintosh at the FT Long Short assesses Ireland's progress towards the exit of the programme and the risks

Simon Wren-Lewis : "..badly designed EZ.."

Simon Wren-Lewis warns the powers that be to be cautious on the strength of the argument that .."greater fiscal and political integration among countries using the EURO"  is necessary, as he argues that  "..Eurozone failure is largely about bad design, rather than disproof of concept."
(SS. Column to be re-read)

Minimum Wage (revisited)

Check back my  post of 16th Feb. and continue with Jérémie Cohen-Setton, David C. Saha who exhaustively review blogs on the topic. 

Lest we forget... Eichengreen and De Grauwe .. Spring 2010

As time goes by we tend to forget
Paul De Grauwe 11.03.2010 and  Barry Eichengreen 15.04.2010

Krugman et al on Europe....again!

Paul Krugman doesn't tire drawing attention to the damaging effects of austerity in Europe, citing Wren-Lewis and Mazower this time to underline the political risks.
Brad DeLong says:CONTRACTIONARY POLICY IS CONTRACTIONARY and links to another column by Krugman on the topic. (good reads, all)

As always, politics interferes with economics, and in Europe political choices are strongly influenced, if not outright made, by what we call the core-countries, and more concretely by Germany, who has developed as the veto political and economic player in the EE.

Now, Germany has had the best crisis among the top world economies. The political elite in Germany attribute this success to the austerity programme initiated by the SPD in the early 2000's. I, for what it 's worth, would not argue with that and have not come across a refutation.

Update: 6 March Daniel Gros ""Learning from Germany""

The problem is that the political elite, but also the German people, think that if austerity proved good for them, it will have a good outcome in the other countries of the EZ, too.

Will politics blow up Europe before the austerity fairy does its magic?