Europe’s 15-Year Slump - Project Syndicate op-ed - Yanis Varoufakis
www.yanisvaroufakis.eu
The European Union’s supporters celebrate the survival of the euro, the fact that public debt is no longer the threat it was, and, crucially, that their mercantilist business model remains intact. But it has come at a steep price: Europe’s permanent stagnation and continuing fragmentation. ATHENS – Europe is languishing in a long-term economic slump whose origins […]
  • @[email protected]English
    6•1 year ago

    I’m going to try to trim out the kind of emotional language and just summarize what I believe the argument he’s making is:

    • The EU should adopt at least a de facto federal union to the extent of “common debt, substantial federal-like taxes, and a five-year aggregate pan-European green investment plan”.

    • He wants industrial policy and more spending at an EU level rather than at a member state level.

    • The EU needs political and and fiscal union to make its monetary union work correctly.

    • @psychothumbsOPEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      I’d endorse that summary of his policy preferences. It’s staggering how crippling having a monetary but not a fiscal union has been for Europe.