Category Archives: euro
The EU’s ‘techno party’ is hollowing out democracy
Not everybody’s into techno music. Some folks are a little bit country; others a little bit rock and roll. But under what one Brussels wag recently called the EU’s ‘techno-party’ … Continue reading
‘New system of European governance’ demands deeper austerity
The European taskmaster has cracked the whip. However much austerity has been imposed by EU member states, it is simply not enough. That is the overriding message from the European … Continue reading
Working the night-shift in the German austerity sweatshop – Part IV: The end of the eurozone
But if what needs to happen cannot happen, what does Lord Skidelsky, a 71-year-old economic historian who has been witness to the full fifty years of European integration, think will? … Continue reading
Working the night-shift in the German austerity sweatshop – Part III: Back to the future with the Werner Plan
So how do we get out of this mess? It’s relatively simple, really. All that has to happen is a rebalancing of competitiveness between the core and the periphery. “Of … Continue reading
Working the night-shift in the German austerity sweatshop – Part II: The China of Europe
But how did we get into this mess in the first place? In the 1990s during the run-up to the single currency and throughout the 2000s, all European countries battened … Continue reading
Working the night-shift in the German austerity sweatshop – Part I: Dr Merkel’s fiscal enema
There was a cheeky cartoon that made the Facebook and Twitter rounds a few days ago, posted by one of the Financial Times’ Alphaville bloggers. It went ‘viral,’ as the social-media consultants … Continue reading
The junta of experts tells us: ‘Vote how you like, but policies cannot change’
Europe seems to have slipped almost imperceptibly in the space of only a few months into an electoral interzone, a crack in the pavement of democracy. The formal trappings of … Continue reading
Hurling democracy into the volcano to appease the market gods
Pacific islanders never actually threw virgins into volcanoes to appease angry gods; it was only ever a TV trope of bad American sketch comedy and Saturday-morning cartoons. But you remember … Continue reading
