Category Archives: Economic fundamentals

Youth Unemployment in the Mediterranean Region and its Long-Term Implications

The data on European youth unemployment is sobering, and the migrant influx is making a bad situation worse.

Open Thread: Reader Takes on Sanders/Clinton Brooklyn Debate

Seeking reader reactions to last night’s Sanders/Clinton debate.

Mathew D. Rose: The Remarkable World of Angela Merkel and Her Friends

With friends like Merkel’s, who needs enemies?

Bill Black: “Liberal” Economists Cheered the New Democrats’ Deregulation of Finance

A case study illustrating how soi-disant liberal economists pushed the US to the right during the Clinton Administration.

Martin Wolf Defends Central Banks’ Negative Interest Rate Policies

The Financial Times’ lead economics writer, Martin Wolf, makes an intellectually bogus case for negative interest policies.

Intra-EMU Divergence Is A Feature Not A Bug

Yves here. I’m leery of reinforcing the “competitiveness” meme, since it’s based on the false premise that all countries can be exporters. But this article nevertheless makes important observations about Eurozone structural flaws.

Fed Suddenly Having Emergency Meetings as European Banks Also Wobble

The Fed is suddenly looking very nervous, and by contrast, the Europeans don’t seem anywhere nervous enough on the banking front.

Can We Cut Carbon Emissions and Still Have Economic Growth?

This Real News Network segment marshals data to make a provocative argument: there are more ways to decouple carbon emissions and GDP growth than most observers believe.

Ireland: a Recovery Built on Sand

How official statistics exaggerate Ireland’s performance, largely due to its status as a tax haven/offshore financial center.

A New Stability and Growth Pact? Let’s Drop the Technocratic Veil!

On how economic growth models constrain policy debates and choices among Eurocrats, and why that is no accident.

Leaked Memo Reveals IMF (Still) Wants Out of Greece Bailout and Plots to Pressure Germany to Act

A new leak shows the IMF as the least bad actor of the Troika, which given its record as a neoliberal fist in third world countries, speaks volumes about European politics.

Is the Oil Price-GDP Link Broken?

Explanations of the oil price decline are starting to acknowledge deflationary factors, even though the “d” word seems to be outside the pale .

How Much Has Global Economic Power Really Shifted?

Why the shift in economic power from advanced to developing economies has not gone as far as most accounts would have you believe.

Can Sanders Win Over Rich Voters in New York?

After Wisconsin, the next round of primaries in concentrated in more affluent East Coast states, and Clinton does well with rich voters. Can Sanders make enough headway with them?

Is an Aussie Debt Crisis Around the Corner?

Australia’s macro numbers are looking more worrisome by the minute. Is this a trajectory to a debt crisis?