The global downturn that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 has now lasted for more than five years and the world as a whole is far from normal employment or economic activity. Even the United States, which has seen a healthier recovery than much of Europe, is still struggling with high unemployment and […]
The Time to Rethink the Healthcare is now
Advanced economies face profound economic, budgetary and social risks …
No One Really Believes that Honesty Is the Best Policy
Ernst & Young’s 2013 Fraud Survey has yielded some ugly results. 60% of the 3,000 board members and managers surveyed around the world said that the pressure to report positive financial outcomes had increased in the last 12 months. This is a delicate way of saying that owners and senior managers are prepared to do […]
Will Labor in the Euro Periphery Soon Be Cheaper than in Eastern Europe?
Every now and then reports on falling hourly labor costs in euro periphery countries surface and make newspaper headlines. Headlines sometimes express falling labor costs as good news, and other times as bad news, depending on who does the interpreting. Falling labor costs may be considered good news because they indicate that it is cheaper […]
What’s Going On with the Spanish and European Banking System?
The other day, a reporter asked me three questions about the current state of Spanish and European banking. Among all the areas of economic analysis, I find monetary economics and banking most interesting. In 1992, together with three coauthors, I published one of the first articles about general equilibrium economics that had the word “banking” […]
