The WWWforEurope project proposes a new medium to long-term EU Strategy, aiming to transform the present socio-economic model which has resulted in economic stagnation, social fragmentation and irreversible depletion of environmental capital, towards a more sustainable model where social,...

Structural reform proposals have undergone significant change both as proposed by IMF and OECD as by the European Union. From a narrow flexibility-enhancing ('liberalising') focus complementing a strict budget consolidation course, they have evolved towards embracing institutional reforms and...

First paragraph: Globalization is not a new phenomenon. A first phase occurred during the colonization of Africa, Asia and Latin America when raw materials for Europe were extracted, slave labor shipped across the world and markets developed as outlets for European commodities. This critical...

First paragraph: The controversy still rages on whether the current crisis is the result of market failure or government failure. Paraphrasing former US-President Harry Truman's request for a one-armed economist, I would say ›both‹. On the one hand, the tenets of the mainstream efficient...

For a number of years it has become obvious to an increasing number of observers that the economic policy framework of the EU and the euro area is no longer 'fit for purpose'. This effectiveness gap in economic governance has become even more visible during recent multiple crises (ranging from...

There is a consensus that within the European Union, Germany is presently the country lagging farthest behind in terms of economic dynamics. Most researchers blame rising wages, welfare costs, and overregulated labour markets for this poor position. Some add that as a result of membership in the...

This paper compares the depth of the Recent Crisis and the Great Depression. We use a new data set to compare the drop in activity in the industrialized countries for seven activity indicators. This is done under the assumption that the Recent Crisis leveled off in mid-2009 for production and...

This paper compares the depth of the recent crisis and the Great Depression. We use a new data set to compare the drop in activity in the industrialized countries for seven activity indicators. This is done under the assumption that the recent crisis leveled off in mid-2009 for production and...

Die Weltwirtschaft ist 2009 zum ersten Mal seit Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts nicht gewachsen. Die Wirtschaftsleistung dürfte um 2% zurückgegangen sein, in den Industrieländern um 3,5%. Dies war die Folge der Finanzkrise, sie hat zu einem Einbruch des Welthandels mit Folgen auf alle...