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the New Economy Ticker
The latest news, debates, proposals and developments on new economic thinking at a glance.
Economists propose investments of 600 billion euros – To article
Martin Greive, Jan Hildebrand, Julian Olk, 14.05.2025, Handelsblatt
According to a new study, Germany needs to invest a huge amount in infrastructure over the next ten years. The demand comes in the midst of the traffic light budget dispute.
You can find the joint study by the German Economic Institute (IW Köln) and the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) at the Hans-Böckler-Foundation here.
Don’t Fret About Green Subsidies – To article
Dani Rodrik, 10.05.2024, Project Syndicate
Governments should stop decrying each other’s green industrial policies as norm violations or dangerous transgressions of international rules. The moral, environmental, and economic arguments all favor those who subsidize their green industries, not those who want to tax others’ production.
A missed opportunity for a China-EU grand bargain – To article
Martin Sandbu, 10.05.2024, Financial Times
Differences over Russia and economic frictions cast a shadow across Xi Jinping’s tour of European capitals.
A China-Shock for Europe – To article
Dana Heide, Sabine Gusbeth, Kathrin Witsch, Julian Olk, Moritz Koch, 14.05.2024, Handelsblatt
Subsidized companies from China are conquering the global markets. Because the USA is sealing itself off from the competition, economic experts are warning Europe of an import glut.
What does progress look like on a planet at its limit? – To article
Kate Raworth, 13.05.2024, The Guardian
Putting endless growth above our wellbeing and the environment is no longer viable.
What Mission-Driven Government Means – Article
Mariana Mazzucato & Rainer Kattel, 07.05.2024, Project Syndicate
Mission-driven government, based on an historically informed understanding of what policymakers are capable of doing for the common good, is critical in today’s world. While it need not follow a fixed path, it does call for fundamental changes to longstanding processes and assumptions.
Biden’s Incomplete Industrial Policy – Article
Mariana Mazzucato & Sarah Doyle, 06.05.2024, Foreign Affairs
How to Finish Building an Economy That Works for Everyone.
The danger of sugar-coated rhetoric – Article
Michael Backfisch, 07.05.2024, ZEIT Online
The EU must not be fooled by the charm offensive of China’s head of state Xi Jinping. Europe needs a coordinated industrial policy with ambitious goals.
Poorly advised – Article
Lukas Poths & Hans-Peter Roll, 09.05.2024, Makroskop
Whose brainchild is German economic policy? For decades, the Federal Republic of Germany has acted strictly according to conservative-neoclassical and neoliberal principles. A study by the Otto Brenner Foundation shows how the advisory boards of the federal ministries perpetuate this thinking.
How to Close the Gender Wage Gap – Article
Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir, 09.05.2024, Project Syndicate
Iceland owes its progress in narrowing the gender-based wage gap to a decades-long equal-rights movement and targeted public policies, including paid childbirth leave and government-subsidized preschool. This experience closely aligns with the insights of Nobel laureate economist Claudia Goldin.
How To Tell Good Industrial Policy From Bad – Article
Gillian Tett, Financial Times, 02.05.2024
Experience shows that encouraging exports rather than slapping tariffs on imports works best.
Global Elections in the Shadow of Neoliberalism – Article
Joe Stiglitz, Project Syndicate, 01.05.2024
While scandals, culture wars, and threats to democracy dominate the headlines, the biggest issues in this super election year ultimately concern economic policies.
After all, the rise of anti-democratic populist authoritarianism is itself the legacy of a misbegotten economic ideology.
Finishing the Job of Global Tax Cooperation – Article
José Antonio Ocampo, Project Syndicate, 29.04.2024
Given the many loopholes and opportunities for tax arbitrage in today’s global economy, much closer international cooperation will be needed to ensure that multinational corporations and the world’s wealthiest people pay their fair share. Negotiations for this purpose are now underway, but developed countries must get on board.
The White House knows that the global south has a point – Article
Financial Times, Rana Foroohar, 23.04.2024
Rich countries espouse active industrial policy at home while continuing to impose outdated policies abroad.
Trau dich mehr Marktwirtschaft, liebes Deutschland – Artikel
Stefan Kolev und Max Krahé, Die Zeit, 27.04.2024
Germany can only emerge from the crisis with a new supply-side policy. These three reforms are important for a fresh start – and are even feasible for the traffic lights.
Ministers of Germany, Brazil, South Africa and Spain: why we need a global tax on billionaires – Artikel
Svenja Schulze, Fernando Haddad, Enoch Godongwana, María Jesús Montero and Carlos Cuerpo, The Guardian, 25.04.2024
Finance chiefs say higher taxes for the super-rich are key to battling global inequality and climate crisis.
What the Upper-Middle-Class Left Doesn’t Get About Inflation – Artikel
Michael Powell, The Atlantic, 14.04.2024
Liberal politicians and economists don’t seem to recognize the everyday harms of rising costs.
Freedom for the Wolves – Artikel
Joe Stiglitz, The Atlantic, 22.04.2024
Neoliberal orthodoxy holds that economic freedom is the basis of every other kind. That orthodoxy, a Nobel economist says, is not only false; it is devouring itself.
The West’s New Infrastructure Imperative – Artikel
Diane Coyle, Project Syndicate, 19.04.2024
A dim future awaits any society that allows its infrastructure to degrade and underinvests in new needs. But as the conversation about broadening the scope of infrastructure grows louder in the West, there are glimmers of hope that these countries are finally waking up to the need to invest more in public goods and services.
History Already Tells Us the Future of AI – Artikel
Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson, Project Syndicate, 23.04.2024
David Ricardo, one of the founders of modern economics in the early 1800s, understood that machines are not necessarily good or bad. His insight that whether they destroy or create jobs all depends on how we deploy them, and on who makes those choices, could not be more relevant today.
Power, productivity and how our system works – Artikel
Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, 22.04.2024
What if the productivity gap is really about how large corporations use their economic and political power?
Mario Draghi: Radical Change—Is What Is Needed – Full speech
Groupe d’études géopolitiques, 16.04.2024
During his speech at the High-level Conference on the European Pillar of Social Rights in Brussels, Mario Draghi critically reflected on past ECB policies and failures.
America’s Manufacturing Renaissance Will Create Few Good Jobs –Article
Project Syndicate, Dani Rodrik, 16.04.2024
Many countries’ recent experiences show that boosting manufacturing employment is like chasing a fast-receding target. Automation and skill-biased technology have made it extremely unlikely that manufacturing can be the labor-absorbing activity it once was, which means that the future of “good jobs” must be created in services.
Neoliberalismus –Article (in German, Paywall)
Mark Schieritz, die ZEIT, 17.04.2024
After the global financial crisis, capitalism was supposed to become kinder, gentler and more sympathetic – now the top representatives of the traffic light party are talking about “economic turnaround” and “longer working hours”. Is the vocabulary of the market believers bringing back what the SPD and Greens have been fighting for years?
Wealth Inequality in Germany is Growing – Article (in German)
Die ZEIT, 15.04.2024
High price and interest rate increases hit poorer households particularly hard. According to the Bundesbank, the differences between rich and poor will therefore widen again from the end of 2022.
Social Desintegration: Breeding Ground for Right-Wing Extremism – Blog (in German)
Johanna Ritter, sozialpolitikblog-Interview, 11.04.2024
Bettina Kohlrausch, Director of the WSI, talks in an interview about the complex connections between loss of recognition, the world of work and the rise of right-wing extremism.
OUR MAIN TOPICS
New Paradigm
NEW PARADIGM
After decades of overly naive market belief, we urgently need new answers to the great challenges of our time. More so, we need a whole new paradigm to guide us. We collect everything about the people and the community who are dealing with the question of a new paradigm and who analyze the historical and present impact of paradigms and narratives – whether in new contributions, performances, books and events.
Redefining
the role of
the state
REDEFINING
THE ROLE OF
THE STATE
For decades, there was a consensus that reducing the role of the state and cutting public debt would generate wealth. This contributed to a chronic underinvestment in education and public infrastructure. New research focuses on establishing when and how governments need to intervene to better contribute to long-term prosperity and to stabilize rather than aggravate economic fluctuations.
Remaking
finance
REMAKING
FINANCE
More than a decade after the financial crisis there still seems to be something seriously wrong with the financial system. Financial markets still tend to periodically misprice risk and contribute to boom and bust cycles. A better financial system needs to discourage short-termism and speculative activity, curtail systemic risk and distribute wealth more broadly.
Greening
prosperity
GREENING
PROSPERITY
During the high point of market orthodoxy, economists argued that the most 'efficient' way to combat climate change was to simply let markets determine the price of carbon emissions. Today, there is a growing consensus that prices need to be regulated and that a carbon price on its own might not be enough.
Reducing
inequality
REDUCING
INEQUALITY
The rising gap between rich and poor has become a threat to social cohesion in most rich countries. To reverse this trend it will be crucial to better understand the importance of different drivers of income and wealth inequality.
Innovation Lab
INNOVATION LAB
Do we need a whole new understanding of economic growth? What would be a real alternative? How viable are alternatives to GDP when it comes to measuring prosperity? These and other more fundamental challenges are what this section is about.
Globalization
for all
GLOBALIZATION
FOR ALL
After three decades of poorly managed integration, globalization is threatened by social discontent and the rise of populist forces. A new paradigm will need better ways not only to compensate the groups that have lost, but to distribute the gains more broadly from the start.
Europe
beyond markets
EUROPE
BEYOND MARKETS
The euro was planned during a period in which economic policy making was driven by a deep belief in market liberalism and the near impossibility of systemic financial crises. This belief has been brought into question since the euro crisis, which showed that panics do happen. New thinking needs to focus on developing mechanisms to protect eurozone countries from such panics and to foster economic convergence between members.
Corona Crisis
CORONA CRISIS
The current Corona crisis is probably the worst economic crisis of the post-World War 2 era. Economists are working hard on mitigating the economic effects caused by COVID-19 to prevent a second Great Depression, the break-up of the Eurozone and the end of globalisation. We collect the most important contributions.