In recent years, Jerome Powell stood firm on the monetary principles he espoused: The Fed was prepared to do whatever it took until inflation returned to its 2% target. On Tuesday, December 12, 2023, Powell showed signs of a change in attitude. The reasons are obvious and it is certainly beyond any economic logic. At …
Category: Proposed Fiscal Policies
fiscal analysis
USA: Black hole in the US economy – Impossible to finance Ukraine
The “black hole” in the American defense economy risks swallowing the economy of the superpower, and the role of the “global policeman” is called into question… So far, the White House has justified its unwavering support for Ukraine by citing principles such as defending democracy and freedom — both in Ukraine and in the West. …
Pressure on Emerging Economies from the Overvalued Dollar
The rise of the US currency depletes their limited foreign exchange reserves and stunts growth by making their exports more expensive. The strengthening of the dollar over the past year due to continued interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve has put severe pressure on many emerging economies, which have seen their national currencies …
Debt and Stagnation threaten Developing Economies
The news brought by the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report was not good. First we have the forecast for global growth (https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects). This is now down to 1.7%, well below the 3% previously forecast in June. For developed economies, the forecast is for growth of just 0.5% in 2023, just above the typical recession …
The ECB’s aggressive interest rate hike is causing problems for the EU
The ECB’s aggressive interest rate hike is causing problems for everyone in Europe. To citizens who are asked to pay a higher installment on their mortgage or consumer loan, to businesses that are raising the cost of servicing their loans, to states that see their existing bonds collapse, and even to public debt that, instead …
Why the EU’s Proposal to Impose a Cap Only on Russian Natural Gas is Wrong?
In the past two weeks the structural pathologies responsible for the EU’s energy gridlock have combined with a series of extreme weather events – such as unprecedented drought – to record unimaginable energy prices. The day-ahead electricity prices in France, the EU’s traditional electricity exporting power, reached on September 2 even above 1,000€/MWh, while natural …
Big Problems for the European Economy
The development of the war in Ukraine leaves no room for optimism for the European economy. It is clear that the longer the war lasts, the greater its economic impact. At the moment we have the terrible accuracy that comes from inflation, which in turn is due in large part to the energy crisis intensifying …
New Challenges for EU Member-Countries Economies
The war in Ukraine has entered a new phase and according to the estimates of the Americans, who have shown that they correctly record and interpret the movements of the Russians, it is going to be quite long. The Russian war machine proves to be inferior to its reputation. A month of hostilities has been …
Using Inflation as a Tool to Improve the Competitiveness of an Economy
An Εurozone/EU member-country’s economic policy can use inflation as an opportunity to achieve two goals: First, to increase the competitiveness of the economy and therefore its employment and growth rate. Second, to reduce the Public Debt-to-GDP ratio. Combining the above, with the imposed need to relieve as much as possible the citizens, especially the weaker …
Industry and Tax sector
A developing country that wants to continue to provide its citizens and businesses, respectively, with opportunities to expand their digital services and platforms, must continually create easy-to-use tools and platforms and push more citizens and businesses to adopt intact digital way of fulfilling their tax obligations. A typical example of such a service is the …