Euros & Dollars: Good News for Indebted Euro-Zone Governments
Just in time for the recession, Europe may see the benefits of lower interest rates.
Sven R. Larson
December 6, 2023
While the EPP tried to reassure colleagues that the proposed legislation preventing child sexual abuse does not violate the personal privacy of EU citizens, many MEPs remain unconvinced, calling for different approaches.
The continent is decidedly moving towards the Right. This could mean that the current balance of power in Brussels could radically change in favor of the center-Right in 2024.
New data suggests an elevated risk for stagflation in Europe. Policymakers beware!
America’s states are supposed to be sovereign jurisdictions. Yet when the federal government is their main source of revenue, how independent are they really?
Financial markets are important to governments that need a lot of tax revenue to pay for their welfare states. The problem with taxes levied on financial markets is that they generate unstable revenue.
The more a tax system relies on financial markets, the more volatile and unpredictable those tax revenues will become. There is no doubt that the U.S. government is experiencing that in real time in 2023.
As dangerous as TikTok is, it’s not the only Chinese creation that deserves closer attention.
With a welfare state that dominates their budgets, European governments are exceedingly vulnerable to a recession. When tax revenue declines and entitlements force governments to spend more, the inevitable result is larger budget deficits. What will the ECB do in response to that?
Did Macron speak in the name of Europe, or in the name of France? The key to Emmanuel Macron’s untimely declaration is perhaps to be found in his desire to conform to French opinion, still driven by an old Gaullist reflex.
If government size and employment rate had been the same in 2022 as they were in 2000, the cost of today’s government would have been $47,000 per employed person. That is a lot of money—until we do the same arithmetic with today’s government size and employment rate. Then the cost comes out to $59,700.
Ever since 2015, migration has been a central issue for most European nations. It is expected to become increasingly debated
The 2021 law on Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence distorted the basic meaning of lawmaking, leading to human tragedies, economic abuse, and child alienation.
