Blog
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After the Election: Business as Usual
The elections to the European Parliament hardly produced unexpected results. All the polls in the past weeks have shown that Front National and the UK Independence Party were close to becoming the...
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The New Parliament and Economic Challenges
I was asked by the CASS Journal in China to give a few thoughts on what economic issues that the new European Parliament should address. Here's the short piece: The new European Parliament that...
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The Costs of Data Localization
In the aftermath of recent revelations on mass-scale electronic surveillance, there has been a widespread proliferation of internet restrictions. One of the most drastic, yet a common policy response...
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European Growth and the Stark Economic Reality of a Lost Decade
I was asked by a couple of news agencies yesterday what I thought of the new winter economic forecast from the European Commission. I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. Average EU growth is...
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The World Economy – Running on One or Two Engines?
The image of the world economy in the past years has been one of a slowing tanker, running only on one engine. The developing part of the world, or what in today’s language is called the fast...
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Threats to the European Way of Life (part 4)
I wrote here about the French peculiar ban against online booking of taxis. Well, yesterday our friends at the FT report that the law has been revoked by the State Council of France. We claim...
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More Threats to European Way of Life (part 3): Movies on Smartphones.
No rest for the wicked – after declaring war on books and taxis, it took the Hollande government less than a week to come back with a new tax on something digital. This time, the crosshair is on...
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Taxis and Taxes: More “Threats” to the European Way of Life? (part II)
A couple of days before Brussels shut down for winter holidays, I was reached by an email that my op-ed on internet taxation in France and Italy is one of the most popular articles on European...
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Unwelcome Benefits of the WTO Bali Deal?
After twelve years of tedious negotiations, only a fraction of the original Doha mandate remains. One is filled with certain surprise and relief, as the news of the Bali agreement reach us on...
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Money and Growth in the UK Economy
The recovery of the UK economy has puzzled many economists. It contradicts the views of those that have warned for a prolonged recession because of the country’s fiscal consolidation. That the...