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the New Economy Ticker
The latest news, debates, proposals and developments on new economic thinking at a glance.
The Economic Effects Of Europe’s Election – Article (Paywall)
Martin Sandbu, Financial Times, 06.06.2024
How a rising right might change the EU’s policy course.
Industry calls for billions to combat investment backlog – Article
David Böcking, Spiegel, 12.06.2024
In the midst of the budget dispute between the traffic light coalition, German industry is presenting a plan to mobilize up to 400 billion euros. “Politicians are not coming up with solutions,” says BDI boss Russwurm, explaining the initiative.
Industry’s great lament – Article
Caspar Busse, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10.06.2024
Companies and business associations are calling for a new course in Brussels after the European elections, economists are warning of a standstill: the election results are causing concern for the economy.
We need the EU to finance the transformation – Article
Dominika Biegon & Cédric Koch, FES Online, 11.06.2024
The future of the German and European economy has a financing problem. How the new EU legislature can now launch a joint investment offensive.
Chinese Exports Threaten Europe Even More Than The Us – Article
Sander Tordoir, Politico, 07.06.2024
Biden is right to heed working class voters in Pennsylvania. The Continent, which has even more to lose from a second China shock, better start listening to its workers too.
Debt brake: IW experts make three proposals for reform – Article (Paywall)
Martin Greive & Jan Hildebrand, Handelsblatt, 12.06.2024
Economists put forward ideas on how the debt brake can be reformed. Public finances should nevertheless remain sound. The reluctant FDP is lured with another argument.
How social imbalances weigh on climate policy – Article (Paywall)
Sinan Reçber, Tagesspiegel Background, 13.06.2024
Rising costs for low-income earners and billions for the wealthy: A new think tank is entering the German debate on transformation with eleven theses on climate social policy. Founder Brigitte Knopf sees the solution in low-emission infrastructure and climate money. Some experts are critical of direct payments or see alternatives to them.
The Way Forward For Services-Led Economic Development – Article (Paywall)
Dani Rodrik & Rohan Sandhu, Project Syndicate, 10.06.2024
Today’s developing economies are in a bind, because innovation in manufacturing has taken a predominantly skill-biased form, reducing demand for workers with relatively low levels of education. This means that labor-absorbing services must become productive enough to support income growth.
What Comes After Neoliberalism? – Article (Paywall)
Project Syndicate “Big Question”, 04.06.2024
The steep tariff increases on Chinese goods that US President Joe Biden’s administration recently announced are just the latest in a long string of interventionist economic policies that fly in the face of decades of neoliberal orthodoxy. And the Biden administration is hardly alone: a growing number of governments, economists, and institutions are rethinking the free-market doctrine to which they long subscribed. In this Big Question, we ask Mehrsa Baradaran, Anne O. Krueger, Mariana Mazzucato, Dani Rodrik, Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Michael R. Strain whether the neoliberal era is ending – and if so, what will follow it.
Check out the gallery with some highlights from the Summit – Here
Economists call for an agenda against populism – Article
Stefan Schultz, 29.05.2024, Der Spiegel
Dozens of renowned academics are calling for a reorientation of economic policy. They are proposing far-reaching changes to counter the loss of confidence in liberal democracies.
The Berlin Summit Declaration and the new consensus around industrial policy – Newsletter
Adam Tooze, 29.05.2024, Substack Chartbook 286
“Six years ago a conference like this would have been impossible. The agreement we now have on industrial policy, the lack of fundamental criticism … when I think about it, when I hear myself saying this out loud, I’m amazed.” That was Dani Rodrik yesterday at a conference hosted on the outskirts of Berlin by the Forum New Economy which brought together a group of economists and other experts to discuss the new paradigm of economic policy.
Berlin Manifesto: Influential economists call for more state and less market to strengthen democracy against populists – Article
Romanus Otte, 29.05.2024, Business Insider
In response to the rise of populism, a group of influential economists have called for a more active state, more redistribution and industrial policy to counter distrust of liberal democracies, and in their Berlin Manifesto they call for the state to create jobs, balance inequality and shape better globalization. The call was published by the Forum New Economy and signed by globally influential economists such as Dani Rodrik and Thomas Piketty.
Governments Must Regain Voter Trust With New Economic Policies – Artikel
Richard McGahey, 30.05.2024, Forbes
Daily reporting on election campaigns (who’s up or down in polls, what did a candidate say today), is obscuring an underlying important theme: voters are very distrustful of government. The Berlin-based Forum for a New Economy has just addressed how to attack this critical problem, saying “to avert major damages to humanity and the planet, we must urgently get to the root causes of people’s resentment” or both democracy and also economic well-being will suffer.
The Rise of Mesoeconomics – Article
William H. Janeway, 17.05.2024, Project Syndicate
The digitalization of economic life and real-world data has opened up new possibilities for the study of the economic networks, regions, and sectors that ultimately determine how economic policies play out in the real world. Such modes of thinking will be crucial for economic policymaking in a new age of geopolitical risk.
We are a step closer to taxing the super-rich – Article
Martin Sandbu, 19.05.2024, Financial Times
What once seemed like an impossibility is now being considered by G20 finance ministers.
A New Centrism Is Rising in Washington – Article
David Leonhardt, 19.05.2024, The New York Times
Call it neopopulism: a bipartisan attitude that mistrusts the free-market ethos instead of embracing it.
A 100 Percent Tariff on Chinese Cars Is a Bad Idea. Here’s a Good One – Article
Kate Aronoff, 20.05.2024, The New Republic
Collaboration with Chinese firms may sound counterintuitive. But U.S. automakers are already doing it.
Not all American tariffs are created equal – Article
Rana Foroohar, 20.05.2024, Financial Times
Unlike Trump’s policies, the Biden trade strategy aims to build domestic industrial capacity and could be good for US allies.
Does austerity help right-wing parties? – Article
Jonas Schaible, 25.05.2024, Der Spiegel
The Federal Minister of Finance doubts that austerity policies help extreme right-wing parties such as the AfD. However, several recent studies show a connection.
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.
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.