Has Italy Really “Gone Back Into Recession”? | Jeffrey Frankel’s Blog

August 15, 2014 By dralfoldman in Austerity, Business Administration, Euro Crisis, Fiscal Policy, Growth, Italy, People, Politics, Unemployment Tags: European Central Bank, European Commission, Frankel, Harvard, Harvard University, International Monetary Fund, Italy, Jeffrey Frankel 4 Comments

Countries using the Euro de jure Countries and...

Countries using the Euro de jure Countries and territories using the Euro de facto Countries in the EU not using the Euro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a recommended read from noted, Harvard, international macro-economist, Jeffrey Frankel. Check it out!

Has Italy Really “Gone Back Into Recession”? | Jeffrey Frankel’s Blog.

Frankel argues that Italy has been in one continuous decline since 2008.

This makes a mockery of the policies of the troika, namely the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission.

Solutions for Frankel are simple:

Reduced austerity; and
Supply-side reform

Thoughts?

British austerity is no model for the rest of the world – Larry Summers – FT.com

May 5, 2014 By dralfoldman in Austerity, David Cameron, Fiscal Policy, George Osborne, Growth Tags: David Cameron, Financial Times, Harvard, Harvard University, Larry Summers, Lawrence Summers, White House, Wikipedia 2 Comments

White House portrait of Lawrence Summers.

White House portrait of Lawrence Summers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a MUST-READ article by Larry Summers, Charles W Eliot university professor at Harvard and a former US Treasury secretary. It’s published in the FT.

Brtish austerity is no model for the rest of the world – FT.com.

Personally, I agree with Larry Summers but feel that he’s been too polite by far.

For me, David Cameron’s UK Government has been reckless in stimulating demand on the back of a government guaranteed domestic property inflationary bubble. This blog has been advocating, for some time, wider policies that addressed skills, competitiveness and exports.

Let me turn this to an open question:

Given the UK‘recent increase in economic growth, how should government policy be changed to broaden and deepen the growth so that it is sustainable for a longer period?

Any thoughts?

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