By Ferdi De Ville Even in these relatively calm days after the second bail-out of Greece has been approved and the European Central Bank avoided the collapse of the European banking system by its second Longer Term Refinancing Operation, it is hard to pick one out of the bran tub of interesting topics to blog…

By Ferdi De Ville On the Wall Street Journal on Friday February 24, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi made no secret about his ideas on the future of the European social model: finito! It is already dead, as it should be, according to the ECB boss. Thereby he admits what many for some time…

By Ferdi De Ville It has been much lamented that European Parliament elections are ‘second-order elections’. European elections attract a low and ever-declining turnout and the voters who do make the effort to go to the ballot box base their choice on national rather than European considerations. The ‘euro crisis’ may thoroughly change this picture.…

By Nikos Chrysoloras A common narrative in both Greek and international press is that the Greek economy is contracting so sharply because of the ridiculously high taxation imposed by the IMF, over the last two years. Journalists and commentators who support this view do not, obviously, bother to look at data. If they did, they…

By Rainer Emschermann Germany does it again: After two world wars, it is again trying to dominate Europe, this time by forcing the eurozone under its economic tutelage. While it was ok for eurozone countries to buy German products and boost German growth during the last decade, Germany is now refusing solidarity with its customers…

By Ferdi De Ville Even more than other years, ‘to grow’ topped Nicolas Sarkozy’s wish list for 2012. With the French presidential election coming up in late spring, the current president can miss a recession like, let’s say, a hotel maid entering a room at the wrong moment. The wish for growth also scored high…