English: A map showing European membership of the EU and NATO. EU member only NATO member only Member of both Česky: Mapa zobrazující členství evropských států v EU a NATO. státy pouze v EU státy pouze v NATO státy v NATO a EU (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Over recent months I have pondered over the following questions about Europe:
- How should national Governments and the EU reduce unemployment and create full employment?
- Is there an alternative to the over-arching policy of austerity?
- Are full employment and low taxes mutually exclusive?
Regular readers of this blog will know that I favor a balanced approach focusing on growth and medium term fiscal discipline.
What worries me most about austerity is that it is both damaging and ineffective in the context of many European countries.
I have consistently argued in favor of a gold standard for policy-makers, namely:
- Strong leadership
- Overarching vision
- Coordinated and carefully analyzed strategy, and
- Fully risked assessed, properly costed and effectively managed delivery plans
For me, the troika of the ECB, IMF and the EU have the wrong priorities. The ECB and the national central banks should have their powers extended to resemble the US Federal Reserve and include responsibility for full employment, as well as inflation management.
In my judgement, National governments and the EU need to undertake a comprehensive strategic review, and then embrace my proposed “gold standard”.
Most importantly, a zero-based review is required of the national Public Sectors and EU bureaucracies, radically transforming public services across Europe:
- Embracing a customer focused strategies, based upon my radical innovation and continuous innovation proposals
- Achieving top decile performance consistently in global bench-marking
- Eliminating restrictive labor practices and outsource all non-strategic services
For more comprehensive suggestions see some of my earlier blogs, incuding:
- Beyond austerity
- UK Local Authorities and Shared Services: Cost-Cutting – Myths, Realities and Escalating Risks?
- Public Sector Catch 22: Structural Reform, Strategy and Implementation – How to avoid a Omnishambles Recovery Programme?
- Public Sector Catch 22: Cost-Cutting Vs. Cost Reduction
This, of course, is very much a “stawman” proposition.
What do you think?
Please share your views, whether you agree, disagree or have a completely different perspective..
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