Economy

Taxes: your subscription to democracy

Tax evasion is a fiendishly tricky crime to prove as it lacks the two most valuable players in any crime: a clear victim and a clear offender. It leaves no dead body lying beside a bloody knife, no stolen car with fingerprints on the handle, and no broken windows at a jewellery store. It merely (…)

Sunday 28 March 2021

Europe: the world’s next big short squeeze?

GameStop has drawn global headlines in the past month due to its dramatic rise and fall in stock price. Largely caused by a surge in investments from Reddit users, the video game company’s stocks have made armchair investors millions while leaving some of the world biggest hedge funds out (…)

Thursday 11 February 2021

Ireland’s ‘Thriving’ Economy: A Lesson in Deceiving GDP

How Ireland has managed to become one of the fastest-growing economies during the pandemic.

Saturday 23 January 2021

Pensions: a European issue

Macron’s controversial reform in late 2019 has put the issue of pensions in the spotlight once again. Yet a general overview across European pension systems shows that France is not the only country dealing with serious problems - and, in fact, that huge questions will have to be answered (…)

Thursday 16 April 2020

Déjà vu on coronabonds: why the euro will never be safe

Madelaine Pitt draws parallels between coronabonds and the banking union.

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Covid-19 and the EU’s (latest) crisis

This article is dedicated to Alfredo Garrido Guanipa, the author’s uncle, who on March 29th and in Madrid (Spain), sadly passed away due to Covid-19. As the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps the globe, leaving hundreds of thousands infected, tens of thousands of deaths and more than one billion people (…)

Sunday 5 April 2020

The EU’s response to coronavirus can make or break Europe

It is impossible to predict when the coronavirus crisis will end, or what its precise political and economic consequences will be: as LSE economist Luis Garicano has pointed out, it is unclear ‘which sectors and supply chains it will disrupt, or how much the GDP will drop’. Yet as the crisis (…)

Wednesday 18 March 2020

Land defense industry: market shift ahead?

As military equipment increases its complexity virtually every year, non-specialized firms are gradually pulling out of the market, while specialized firms are bagging the abandoned business. In coming years, additional concentrations may be seen in the European defense industry. If so, it will (…)

Tuesday 29 October 2019

The Regional Competitive Index: London 0, Stockholm 1

How do we measure which EU regions are doing well? And what do we mean by “doing well”? Cohesion policy, which aims to ensure investment in less fortunate communities and reduce disparities between rich and poor, uses GDP per capita to decide where to throw its considerable financial weight. (…)

Thursday 10 October 2019

EU-Mercosur deal: a comprehensive analysis

The EU-Mercosur agreement will create a huge tariff-free market, but has also been heavily criticised.

Monday 7 October 2019

Phil Hogan: A trade Commissioner for Ireland or Europe?

The current agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has been appointed to the trade portfolio in Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission. The position constitutes one of the most important roles in the next Commission, and will give the Irishman significant influence over the negotiations for a potential (…)

Tuesday 1 October 2019

EU-Mercosur trade deal: Cheap meat for Europe, cheap cars for South America

The European Union and the South American Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur) encompass 780 million consumers. The scale makes the deal particularly delightful for both partners. Now that the EU-Mercosur deal succeeded, critics voice their concerns: Neither cheap meat nor cheap cars are compatible (…)

Sunday 28 July 2019
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