“Make investments possible!” By Hubertus Bardt and Michael Hüther, courtesy of IW Koeln Germany faces enormous challenges in modernizing its capital stock. After neglecting public investment over the last two decades, it is now necessary to update the infrastructure and gradually reduce the investment backlog. Managing demographic aging and decarbonising the economy […]
Tag: public spending
UK council finances are unsustainable, new model urgently needed
TPA responds to IFS report on council tax By Harry Fone, courtesy of Taxpayers’ Alliance A new report released by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has analysed funding for local authorities and made a series of recommendations. Few would challenge the IFS’ argument that the present funding model is unsustainable and alternative […]
UK can’t afford to live in fiscal fantasy land
“Budget or no budget, with borrowing now on the rise again fiscal realities can’t just be wished away” By Carl Emmerson, Paul Johnson and Isabel Stockton, courtesy of IFS Today was the intended date of Sajid Javid’s first Budget as Chancellor. The failure to implement a Brexit deal, and the general election campaign, […]
Tories get in touch with their spendy side
While Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson isn’t afraid to utter the c-word — that’s “capitalism” — in pleasant contrast to his immediate predecessors, his government seems to be steering away from other longstanding Tory principles, namely those of fiscal responsibility and small government. So […]
Central banks need to tell everyone to suck it up
While monetary policy has an important role to play in combating economic downturns, central banks have assumed an outsized importance at the expense of other policy options, writes Dr. Michael Ivanovitch in a commentary for CNBC, arguing that central bankers need to […]
Down It Goes! Dutch Debt Fell (Really)
Low country indeed: as Italy prepares to dig itself even deeper into a fiscal hole, the Netherlands has somehow managed to reduce its public debt by 5%, almost unheard of in modern economies, according to Rabobank. The analysis notes: The Netherland’s current public debt, at 52.4% of GDP, is far below the Eurozone average of […]