The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the great challenges that will characterize the XXI Century. In the background we consider the problem of the relationship between “Us” and the “Others”, that is how to reconcile the power of Western universalism with the multitudes of other...

This book review presents a summary of “Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy” by Raghuram Rajan, who puts forward a clear and cogent account of the latest global financial crisis. With the historical perspective he adopts, Rajan digs in deeper than the shallow...

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was one of the great architects of the euro. He is remembered in particular as co-rapporteur for the Delors Committee and as a founding member of the European Central Bank's Executive Board. For Padoa-Schioppa, becoming Director-General of the European Commission's DG II...

After 10 years of abstinence from the European Monetary Union, should the UK be seriously thinking about joining the Eurozone? Especially in view of the European Central Bank's improved reputation as a crisis manager in the wake of the financial crisis, could EMU represent a safe haven for the...

The pro-cyclical behavior inherent in the operation of financial markets is at the heart of the current financial crisis. Against the arguments upheld by orthodox economists, these markets do not stabilize by themselves nor tend to smooth the private spending behavior. This problem has been...

In his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith (1776) considered the phenomenon of division of labor so enormously significant for the creation of a nation’s wealth that he devoted the first three chapters of his book to an investigation of this process. This is...

The financial crisis started in the United States spread over to Europe and, for the first time after 1945, it developed to an overall macroeconomic crisis in the entire developed world. Social and ideological consequences of the deep recession are expected to follow. The article focuses on the...

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was one of the great architects of the euro. He is remembered in particular as co-rapporteur for the Delors Committee and as a founding member of the European Central Bank’s Executive Board. For Padoa-Schioppa, becoming Director-General of the European Commission’s DG...

Over viewing the most recently evolutions throughout global economy, we can easily conceive that the collateral effects of economical globalization and market integration, represents the main issues debated in specialized professional or political circles. The unanimous impression underlines the...

To understand macroeconomic and monetary thought at the European Commission, two elements are crucial: firstly, the Rome Treaty, as it determined the mandate of the Commission and, secondly, the economic ideas in the different countries of the European Community, as economic thought at the...