Wednesday, Feb 8th 2012
The eurozone will pay a high price for Germany’s economic narcissism
Hans Kundnani in the Guardian on the German minimalist approach to the euro crisis as informed by ordoliberalism, which is…
“…a peculiarly German form of economic liberalism influenced by Adam Smith but also by 20th-century German history. Developed in the 1930s and 1940s by Walter Eucken and [...]
The beginning of 2012 is a suitable moment to assess China’s economic prospects for the year and coming period. This overall perspective is clear - China will grow strongly, remaining the world’s fastest growing major economy, and will continue to substantially outperform Western pessimist predictions. This is the same fundamental analysis maintained by the author over the [...]
Commodity prices are a particularly sensitive indicator for the world economy due to their strong and pro-cyclical price fluctuations. These in turn are linked to supply inelasticities - the obstacles to and pronounced time delays in changing the supply of many commodities.
Agricultural commodities frequently require a minimum of a year to increase output due to [...]
UK-US ’special relationship’ is alive and well - it runs from City of London to Wall St. | Nick Shaxson
Wisdom abounds that one of the many outcomes of Cameron’s Veto over the EU Summit Treaty was that not only did it isolate the UK in Europe, but it also occurred without the safety net [...]
The outcome of the EU summit has widely been hailed in the British media as a triumph for David Cameron. It is rare that a complete rupture and isolation in multi-party negotiations is regarded as a triumph - but this is a function of the dominant and still growing xenophobia of the British press.
The EU [...]
Depression and Democracy | Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman says that the current ‘depression’ and turmoil in Europe is aiding and abetting the rise of authoritarian rule in Europe. He points to the anti-democratic actions of Fidesz in Hungry, a party he refers to as ‘Centre-Right’. People should stop using this ‘centre’ stuff as there is nothing [...]
29/11/11 - A turning point in British history | Paul Mason
Paul Mason on good form talking about the “Autumn Statement”.
And don’t kid yourself that Britain is somehow immune, either, from the “government by technocrat” virus sweeping Europe. We saw last night the Lib Dems forced to effectively write their manifesto on the set of Newsnight; [...]
This article was written by John Ross in 1996 at a time when political debates in Britain, stimulated by the beginning of the process to create the single currency after the Maastrict Treaty, were focused on whether or not the UK should join the new single currency. The article concludes that not only is it [...]
Words of a Euro Doomsayer Have New Resonance | Betting on Bernard Connolly
Good god….
Bernard Connolly was “a European Union economist in the early 1990s, where he helped design the common currency’s framework, but then he was dismissed after he expressed turncoat views. In 1998, just months before the euro’s introduction, he predicted that at least one [...]
