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the New Economy Ticker
The latest news, debates, proposals and developments on new economic thinking at a glance.
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.
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?