European leaders have started a discussion on German-inspired “contracts for competitiveness and growth”. To implement structural reforms in eurozone member states, the European Commission has proposed to negotiate with selected countries contracts underpinned by financial support. Read more
Bruegel blog
-
Distressed Europe should not be bribed to reform
6th February 2013
-
The world innovation landscape: Asia rising?
5th February 2013
Global growth in research and development has been vigorous, with both public and private R&D investment increasing and growing more rapidly outside the previously dominant centres of North America, Europe and Japan. The counties with the largest R&D spends are the US, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, China and South Korea. These seven countries account for about 71 percent of worldwide R&D expenditure. Read more
-
No ringfencing makes sense, but don't take off the gloves - implementing the recommendations in the Liikanen report
4th February 2013
Michel Barnier, European commissioner in charge of regulatory reform, has indicated implementation of the recommendations in the Liikanen report will stop short of ringfencing certain bank activities. The argument is that this could undermine fragile European growth outlook. This viewpoint makes sense. Read more
-
The Euro Area: Great Recession or Great Depression?
4th February 2013
The Great Depression was a period of severe economic contraction that lasted many years. In the United States real GDP fell every year from 1929 to 1933, when it reached only 73 percent of its 1929 level. Starting in 1934 the recovery was quite rapid, with GDP reaching its 1929 level in 1936. By contrast the Great Recession has been much milder. Read more
-
Is the Euro Crisis Over?
1st February 2013
Financial crises tend to start abruptly and end by surprise. Three years ago, the euro crisis began when Greece became a cause for concern among policymakers and a cause for excitement among money managers. Since the end of 2012, a sort of armistice has prevailed. Does that mean that the crisis is over? Read more
-
Blogs review: Inequality and the recovery
1st February 2013
What’s at stake: Inequality is again a hot topic in the blogosphere. While the early focus of that debate was about the role of inequality in fostering financial crises (see this review from 2011), the debate moved away from short-term macroeconomic issues for some time with the discussion about capital-biased technical change and the rise of robots (see here). That time was short, however, as the latest round of discussion has been about the role that inequality might play in holding back the recovery. Read more
-
(Slowly) back to normal in the Eurozone?
31st January 2013
Private capital is returning to the distressed Eurozone countries and sovereign bonds. 2012 might be remembered as the year in which two “ends of the world” were luckily averted: one, thanks to the wrong intuition of a Mayan forecaster; the other one, thanks to the right intuition of a European central banker. Read more
-
Charts of the week: funding costs keep coming down in the wave of euro optimism
31st January 2013
Funding costs in the euro area have continued to decrease since Mario Draghi’s July announcement. This blog post updates our previous data covering the insurance cost of the 5 major financial and non-financial corporations and the governments of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Read more
-
„Flexibilität geht vor Größe“
30th January 2013
Interview mit Bruegel-Forscherin Benedicta Marzinotto über das künftige EU-Rahmenbudget. Read more
-
Kein schmerzfreier Ausweg
30th January 2013
Das fiskalische Kliff in den USA können wir vergessen. Das eigentliche Problem ist der Schuldenberg - in Amerika, aber auch in Europa. Die Aufgabe, die öffentliche Verschuldung in den entwickelten Länder auf ein verkraftbares Niveau zu verringern, wirkt geradezu entmutigend. Read more