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The FT notes that tax
competition between nations encourages responsible behavior by the
tax-authorities and that low taxes promote growth. Unfortunately Europe's big-tax lobby
will not be satisfied until all such pro-growth tax policies are
exterminated. The European Commission seems to recognise
no limits in its drive to
impose tax harmonisation across Europe. Having issued a sanction
against Luxembourg last July for its preferential tax regime on holding
companies, Brussels is now trying to put pressure on a country outside
the European Union by targeting Swiss cantons' tax breaks and low
business tax rates. Such a move, if it succeeds, will hurt
not only the
Swiss but all taxpayers in Europe. Tax competition gives you - the
entrepreneur or citizen - the opportunity to escape fiscal pressure
from your own government by moving to jurisdictions with more
favourable tax regimes. It gives strong incentives for all governments
to lower taxes, allowing taxpayers to keep more of their money and
making markets less distorted. Such tax competition has existed for
some time in Europe and is being intensified by globalisation. The
Commission
has a strange concept of free trade. It is easy to grasp how public
subsidies to business - which involve confiscating resources from some
parties and giving them to others - should be regarded as "state aid".
But how can the fact that certain taxes are not levied be placed on the
same footing? …This harmonisation logic will inevitably lead EU
bureaucrats to attack other regimes that benefit taxpayers, be they in
the EU or outside. In Ireland, for example, the corporate tax rate is
lower than in Swiss cantons and in Estonia undistributed corporate
profits are simply not taxed. When can we expect pressure on Ireland to
raise its rates or on Estonia to repeal a system that has contributed
to its economic dynamism?
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|
|
Al Gore-ists and Kyoto-crats new green Bureaucracy
 Hard working Yuppies have no time to think. Whenever they
get a few days off, their suitcases are packed to fly to Ibiza for a
weekend-party or for some pro-active off-road Hummer-adventure. Their
vacations are as hectic as their jobs. So even then there is no
opportunity to reflect on their lifestyle. This is a vicious circle:
pressed by the mass media and the advertisement industry the young
professionals do not get the chance to question their cultural image of
normality.
Politicians do not have the courage to tackle the squandering either.
Rather than simply taxing energy consumption they create a new
bureaucracy with thousands of inspectors and technicians to promote
‘ecological’ technology. A CO2tax
is much more simple and effective. Let the polluters pay the ecological
cost of their squander. High fuel prices can stop the madness and
encourage research without new bureaucracy. ...continue
reading Martin De Vliegere's analysis here...
Worldwatch:
Shifting Tax Burden to Polluters
could cut Taxes on Wages and Profits by 15%
 Increasing
taxes on pollution and resource use while lowering taxes on
income and wages is a powerful new tool for protecting the environment,
reports a new study from the Worldwatch Institute titled Getting the
Signals Right: Tax Reform to Protect the Environment and the Economy.
Such a tax shift could also create millions of jobs and boost living
standards of the working poor.
Countries around the world are now
experimenting with environmental
taxes, says the report, which documents how five nations have made
revenue-neutral "tax shifts," using the money from environmental taxes
to cut the conventional taxes that penalize work and investment.
Continue reading the
Worldwatch views here. (Worldwatch is an Independent
research institute for an environmentally sustainable and socially just
society.)
|
 Fiscal Policy Lessons from Europe:
Europe's weakness is too much
taxes, public spending and regulation
 Western
Europe and the United States are wealthy. Both achieved this because of
sensible policies and institutions. While much of the world was and
still is crippled by the absence of functioning market economies,
Europe and the United States have enjoyed remarkable growth thanks to
property rights, the rule of law, and minimal government.
However over the last decades some
European nations allowed the burden of government to climb to
depressing levels. Government spending consumes more than 50 percent of
GDP in France and Sweden and more than 45 percent in
Germany and Italy.
Their poor
performance provide useful lessons about the
economic consequences of bigger government,
and these lessons suggest that also America is on the wrong
track. The most important lesson to be learned is that GDP is linked
to policy.
Even a cursory
review of European economic performance shows that excessive government
has serious adverse
effects: slower growth, higher unemployment, lower living standards,
and a bleak future. Bluntly stated, the United States is in danger of
becoming a decrepit welfare state
like France. Find out
more here at :
|
  Places
in the sun: the Economist Defends Tax Competition.
The Economist has an entire section on the "offshore" world in the
latest issue.
Among the key findings are that so-called offshore
financial centers promote growth and discourage wasteful government:
…the most vexing problem that highly mobile financial flows pose for
governments is that when they cross borders they may take tax revenues
with them. …As companies become ever more multinational, they find it
easier to shift their activities and profits across borders and into
OFCs. …Financial liberalisation—the elimination of capital controls and
the like—has made all of this easier. So has the internet, which allows
money to be shifted around the world quickly, cheaply and anonymously.
…tax, regulatory and other competition is healthy because it keeps
bigger countries' governments from getting bloated. Others argue that
OFCs may be an inevitable concomitant of globalisation. "Even if
today's OFCs were somehow stamped out, something like them would pop up
to take their place," says Mihir Desai of Harvard Business School. Some
academics have found signs that OFCs have unplanned positive effects,
spurring growth and competitiveness in nearby onshore economies.
…International organisations have launched various initiatives to try
to get OFCs to tighten supervision, co-operate more with foreign
governments to catch tax cheats and, at least in Europe, eliminate
"harmful" tax practices. OFCs think such initiatives are designed to
force them out of business. The countries that set these standards "are
an oligopoly trying to keep out smaller competitors. They are both
players and referees in the game. How can they be objective?", asks
Richard Hay, a lawyer in Britain who represents OFCs. …the broader
concern over OFCs is overblown. Well-run jurisdictions of all sorts,
whether nominally on- or offshore, are good for the global financial
system.
|
The
OECD says Sweden should consider abolishing the state income tax
 In a
report on the Swedish economy, the Oecd the notes the problems
of
Sweden's high tax rates and excessively generous welfare
benefits. It
calls for the elimination of the wealth tax and reductions in punitive
marginal tax rates. It even suggests that Sweden abolish the state
income tax alltogether.
Sweden's new government has will stick to the target for general
government net lending of 2% of GDP over the cycle which is necessary
to keep public finances on a sustainable path. Underlying this target
is the assumption that taxes can be sustained at current levels which
could be difficult in the future, not least due to mobile tax bases and
international tax competition.
The share of 20 64 year olds who depend on public income transfers has
declined to 20% in 2006, but it remains much too high. Sickness absence
among those employed and the number entering disability pension
increased rapidly from the late 1990s. The numbers are now falling,
although the stock of disability pensioners remains among the highest
in the OECD.
Letting people keep a bit more of the value they create is vital to
encourage both labour supply and entrepreneurship. The plans to abolish
the wealth tax should therefore be endorsed as it might lead to
repatriation of capital, possibly making more investment capital
available for new small firms. Marginal income taxes are also
important. The combination of social contributions, income and
consumption taxes drives the effective marginal tax rate above 70% for
over a third of the full-time employed, helping to explain why working
hours for those employed are below the OECD average. In fact,
completely abolishing the state income tax would cost just 1½
per cent of GDP.
|
  Deze week maakte
de nieuwe partij rond JM Dedecker
haar
economisch
programma
bekend. Analysten noemen het programma socialer dan de socialisten en
liberaler dan de liberalen. Het programma blijkt radikaal vernieuwend
maar is
toch opvallend realistisch. Enkele hoogtepunten:
| Welvaartfiscaliteit:
De partij wil de incentives herstellen door een verlaging van
overheidsbeslag
tot 40% BBP en de
belastingsdruk progressief te verschuiven van inkomen op consumptie.
|
Deregulering.
|
Flexibilisering van de arbeidsmarkt
|
Efficiënte overheid
| Hertsel democratie
|
Great Myths of the Great Depression
Images of the 1929 Recession here
Cartoons
here
 Lawrence Reed explains how
Governments and the Central Bank catastrophically
mishandled a moderate slowdown of the business cycle, and so caused a
mild recession to
degenerate in the full blown 1929
financial crisis. He explains how the excessive money supply in
the late
twenties first caused the reckless stock market mania and a generalised asset
bubble. When the Fed finally decided to slow the asset inflation they unexpectedly contracted the money supply by a massive
1/3 in six months from August'29
till March'30. The market reacted most vigorously. Stocks plummeted
and asset
prices crashed. Governments then tried to remedy the
accelerating recession by raising import duties, causing reprisal trade bareers by
trading partners. The new tariffs slowed down international trade,
boosting unemployment. Facing declining revenues and increasing wefare
demands
President Hoover doubled income taxes in his 1932 Revenue act. In 1933,
Roosevelt
symply seized peoples gold holdings, abandoned the gold standard, and
devalued
the dollar with 40%....
 It was
in deed not free market failure which produced the 1929
depression. It was political bungling on a grand scale, with the one policy blunder succeeding the other: tradecrushing
tariffs, incentive-sapping taxes, mind-numbing controls on production
and competition, senseless destruction of crops, coercive labor
laws and not in the least the FED's mismanagement. The social cost of the political blunders
was the severest crisis in history.
Stocks fell
to 10% of their pre-crash value, income fell by 28%, car
production fell by 75%, banks failed in record numbers, dragging down
hundreds of thausends of customers. 13 million unemployed in the
US causing rumors of revolt even.
 The author also impressively describes how massive public spending in Roosevelts' New Deal and the excessive dirigism in the National Recovery Act (NRA) rather than remedying the 1929 crisis, prolongued it well into the fourties.
|
 Homo
oeconomicus: De ecologische Grenzen van de Stagnatie.
Over de inconsekwente houding van groenen
tegenover ecotaksen
 De meest
voor
de hand liggende en administratief eenvoudigste ecotaksen zijn de
accijnzen op fossiele brandstoffen. Zo kan de kostprijs van stookolie
gemakkelijk verdubbeld worden. Dit betekent zelfs een besparing op
bureaucratie, aangezien er dan geen fiscale discriminatie meer bestaat
tussen rode ‘stookolie' en witte ‘dieselolie'
Hoewel hun
voorgangers bij Agalev ooit de eerste politieke pleitbezorgers waren
van ecotaksen, zijn de ‘Groen!'-mandatarissen daar nu de meest
fanatieke tegenstanders van. Groen!-mandataris, Voor Els Keytsman (Knack 10-01-07),
zijn Ecotaksen slecht omdat ze ‘asociaal' zijn.
Martin De Vlieghere weerlegt de
nieuwste groene dooddoener tegen de marktwerking...
|
 Comment le poids de
l'État diminue la prospérité.
L'étude de référence
sur l'impact de l'étatisme dans le monde réel.
La
relation entre le poids de l'État et la prospérité
fait partie des débats d'économie politique les plus
controversés. Cette étude de référence de
l'Institut Constant de Rebecque constate d'abord que le poids de
l'État, en dépit des perceptions, n'a cessé
d'augmenter en Suisse : depuis 1960, il a doublé de 17,3%
à 31,4% du produit intérieur brut ; en incluant toutes
les assurances sociales et autres charges obligatoires, il atteint
même 50,2% du PIB.
Se fondant
sur les travaux les plus vastes analysant le lien entre le poids de
l'État et la prospérité l'étude observe
ensuite que la relation négative entre le poids de l'État
et la prospérité est avérée au plan
empirique : en observant un grand nombre de pays sur une longue
durée, ce constat n'est guère réfutable.
l'étude
conclut que, dans la plupart des domaines, y compris ceux les
moins évidents, les alternatives à l'État
existent. Le marché libre et
la société civile, c'est-à-dire les personnes
directement touchées par
les décisions qui les concernent, peuvent non seulement produire
les
biens et les services nécessaires à leur bien-être,
mais peuvent le
faire mieux et moins cher.
|
 There is something rotten in the welfare
state of Europe
The
time has come for Europeans to ask themselves the unthinkable: can
their vaunted social model endure? Something is
rotten in the state of western Europe.
The continent retains valuable assets from the past. But these are
showing symptoms of decay. The underlying cause seems increasingly
evident: the hypertrophy of the state. Symptoms are not hard to find:
this is a continent of high and persistent unemployment, declining
productivity growth, rapid ageing and growing fiscal strains; it is
also one whose once-proud role in knowledge-creation is in
decline.
But in one respect, western Europe
remains pre-eminent: its states are the taxand-spend champions of the
world. This is the heart of the European model. But it is no model for
well-informed outsiders.
Maybe they can see what Europeans will not.
The European state is maternal: protective but also infantilising. Its
high taxes and benefits discourage anybody from doing too well, while
ensuring that nobody does badly. Its services are available to all, but
are also mediocre and inflexible.
It is an example of what the journalist Andrew Neill, following
Friedrich Hayek, calls the "fatal conceit": the view that society can
be rationally planned and directed.
|
|
Great Dane, Great Pain An analysis of the
Danish welfare State on TCS Daily.
"Denmark
is a country where few have too much, and even fewer have too little".
They seek to equalize the masses and prevent the accumulation of
wealth. This is presented as a noble cause. The failure of this thought
is what incentive to build and grow a business, take risk, does the
individual have in a society that both prevents his failure and limits
his success? The great success of America is the unlimited ability to
succeed. The ability to fail and succeed are as important to life as
air. Socialists in general apparently abhore risk. Hence they move to
create a risk free Utopia when in reality there is no such beast. I for
one would forgo all saftey nets for the chance to achieve greatness.
One final thought, name one great economic industry or product
innovation to come from Denmark? Which countries bring forth the latest
innovations, technologies, medicines? The free market is equality of
opportunity. Socialism is equlity of outcome and misery.
|
 Vergrijzing
en budgettair wanbeleid noodzaken 20% belastingsverhoging voor de
volgende generatie.
Volgens Working
Paper 102 van de Nationale Bank van Belgie
(Oct. 2006) is in alle EU-lidstaten (behalve Oostenrijk) het
budgettaire beleid onhoudbaar. Drastische belastigsverhogingen of
besparingen op de overheidsuitgaven zijn onomkoombaar. Van 2010
tot 2035 bedraagt de jaarlijkse supplementaire inspanning om de
vergrijzing te financieren 3700 Euro per jaar per werkende Belg.
Dit
komt neer op een stijging van de
belastingsfaktuur met ruim 20%.
Wil men ook nog eens de werkeloosheidsval bestrijden en de laagste
inkomens ontzien, zal de last op de hogere inkomens prohibitieve
porporties aannemen. Onhoudbaar dus .... lees de
volledige studie hier de korte
inhoud hier en voorstellen
voor een alternatief beleid hier
|
Economie Française: Statistiques,
économie, croissance et richesse
JP Chevallier
La richesse
des nations et de leurs habitants dépend de la
croissance du PIB qui dépend elle même de l'application de
théories économiques qui doivent correspondre à
une réalité observable dans les statistiques. L'OCDE
publie des séries statistiques très intéressantes,
en particulier celle-ci : Gross Domestic Product in OECD countries,
constant prices, millions of national currencies. Quelques
précisions s'imposent pour mieux comprendre ces problèmes…
Pour chaque
pays membre, l'OCDE fournit depuis 1970 les chiffres du PIB
en prix constants dans sa propre monnaie. Ce sont les variations
relatives du PIB qui sont importantes car elles montrent clairement les
réussites et les échecs des politiques économiques
et monétaires sur la longue période selon des
données homogènes et fiables. L'interprétation des
données est facilitée quand on les rapporte à une
année de base 100, ce qui permet de chiffrer facilement les
écarts en pourcentage. Ainsi,
en 35 ans, la richesse des Américains a augmenté
de presque 200 % contre 140 % seulement pour les Français.
|
 De
vergrijzing ontcijferd Marc De Vos (Itinera Institute)
Een
working paper van de Nationale Bank bepleit bijkomende
begrotingsinspanningen voor het opvangen van de vergrijzing. Uitstel
zou een zware hypotheek leggen op toekomstige generaties vanaf 2010*.
Daarmee is een eerste barst ontstaan in de officiële consensus dat
geleidelijke beleidsbijstelling, met het Generatiepact als eerste van
meerdere graduele stappen, ons land zonder veel kleerscheuren door de
vergrijzing kan loodsen. Die barst mag doorzetten tot diepe scheuren. Want wie het totale
plaatje van de vergrijzing overloopt, stelt vast dat de hele Belgische
voorbereiding ervan op wankele premissen berust. leest
artikel hier
|
 Hommage aan Milton Friedman (1912 - 2006)
 Spraakmakend apostel van de
vrije markt
Hij
beïnvloedde Reagan, Thatcher en Pinochet. In de Amerikaanse
econoom
Milton Friedman kende de vrijemarkteconomie haar grootste
voorvechter. Door
redacteur Cees Banning ( nrc.nl )
De Amerikaanse president Ronald Reagan las
zelden een boek, maar Free
to Choose lag – zo wil de overlevering – kapotgelezen op zijn
nachtkast. De gisteren op 94-jarige overleden econoom Milton Friedman
schreef het in 1980 samen met zijn vrouw Rose. Het boek werd een
internationale bestseller en de gelijknamige televisieserie trok
wereldwijd een miljoenenpubliek. Milton Friedman, profeet van het
vrijemarktdenken, kon zijn geluk niet op toen hij hoorde dat de
tv-documentaire zelfs totalitaire staten werd
binnengesmokkeld.
|
Begroting 2006: Schone Schijn. Tekort valt
niet meer te ontkennen
Prof.
Paul De Grauwe |
Veronderstel: een huisvader zit met
een hoop onbetaalde rekeningen en
beslist zijn huis te verkopen om die rekeningen te betalen. Nadat
het huis verkocht is, vraagt hij de koper in het huis te mogen blijven
wonen. De koper gaat akkoord op voorwaarde dat de huisvader 33 procent
van de waarde van het huis jaarlijks als huur betaalt.
Ze sluiten een deal. Te gek om waar te zijn? Nee, dat is wat de
Belgische staat onlangs
heeft gedaan meteen van zijn gebouwen. Het systeem werd door het
Rekenhof aan de kaak gesteld maar dat kreeg nauwelijks belangstelling
in de pers.
Enkele voorbeelden:
financietoren: verkocht aan 276 Mln€, ingehuurd aan
42.70 Mln€ (15,5%)
Willebroekkaai: verkocht aan 4.3 Mln€, ingehuurd aan
1.37 Mln€ (31.8%),
of respectievelijk ca. 4 en 8 maal de normale markt-huurrente.
lees méér hier...
|
 |
|
De
opinie van Prof. Jef Vuchelen: De ontgoocheling is groot
De
ontgoocheling over de regering Verhofstadt is groot, ook bij
bedrijfsleiders
en economen. Achter Verhofstadts 'Burgermanifest' zat
een hoopgevende visie. De strategie was, zodra de liberalen aan de
macht zouden zijn, enkele grote sociaal-economische hervormingen door
te voeren. Een eerste zou de
afbouw van de overheidsinterventie zijn.
Maar precies het tegendeel is gebeurd, stelt Jef
Vuchelen.... De primaire overheids- uitgaven
zijn sinds 2000 explosief gestegen, met niet minder dan 3,2
procent
van het BBP.
De daling
van de rentelasten als gevolg van de lagere intrestvoeten zijn volledig
opgesoupeerd door nieuwe bestedingen.
Zelfs een regering met een socialistische meerderheid had dat nooit
durven uit te voeren.
|
Europe's Ailing
Social Model: Facts & Fairy-Tales. Martin De Vlieghere and Paul Vreymans
 Europe's
social model is unable to tackle the modern challenges of
globalization, and has left Europe with gigantic problems: an
unsurmountable public debt and pension liabilities, a rapidly ageing
population, 19 million unemployed, and an overall youth unemployment
rate of 18%. The unemployment figures may easily be doubled to account
for hidden unemployment. The untold reality is that Europe's real
unemployment stands at the level of the 1932 Depression. The very
essence of the welfare state is at stake.
A man-made
Disaster : Europe's social disaster is
unfolding while the rest of the world is booming at its fastest rate in
three decades. 2004 and 2005 were record years for China and India,
which have double-digit growth rates, and for the USA, which fully
enjoys the benefits of globalization. The world's economy is booming at
an average rate of over 4%, but Europe's growth has stagnated at an
inflated 1.5%.
|
|
 |
The
Economics of Inflation by George Reisman
Mises
University Media ( 54:37 mins MP3 )
|
|
Inflation
and the Business Cycle: The Collapse of the Keynesian Paradigm
Murray N. Rothbard
From the book "For A New Liberty" as read by Jeff Riggenbach.
Mises
University Media ( 1h 13: mins MP3) |
|
Belgisch
"Generatiepact" bestendigt roofbouw op de toekomst
De
erfzonde van de welvaartstaat en 50 jaar Keynesiaans potverteren
Een generatiepact zou moeten gaan over de
verdeling tussen de generaties van de
lusten van onze welvaart en de lasten om die welvaart te genereren. Het
gaat over de vraag welk deel van het over generaties opgebouwd vermogen
we nu opconsumeren en welk deel we voor de volgende generatie
overlaten. 
Het hoeft geen betoog meer dat de huidige generatie met 99% BBP staatsschuld en 295% BBP ongedekte
pensioen- verplichtingen, (samen 395% BBP), de
volgende generatie al met een aardig passief heeft opgezadeld. In
Nauwelijks 30 jaar werd een groot deel van het sedert generaties
opgebouwd vermogen opgesoupeerd.
Een
écht generatiepact zou die roofbouw op de toekomst moeten
stoppen.
Wat paars ons als een generatiepact wil doen doorgaan, is in feite
niets anders dan een op termijn onhoudbare consolidatie van de
"verworven rechten" van de huidige generatie. Het welvaarttsdeficit
opvullen veronderstelt dat we ofwel onze welvaarts-productie
drastisch
opdrijven of onze consumptie drastisch verlagen.
|
|
Big
Public Spending
means
poor Growth.
Slow
growth
results in poverty.
These
are the key findings from our research
confirming the results of earlier
studies such as this
which compared the growth differentials of
30 OECD countries over 45 years
(
over 1000 data-pairs !!! ) |
|
Public Sector Efficiency: an international
Comparsion.
In this paper
the European Central Bank (ECB) studies the performance and the
efficiency of the public sectors of 23
industrialised OECD countries. They compute public sector performance
(PSP) and efficiency
indicators (PSE) for the government as whole and for its core functions. When
deriving performance indicators they distinguish the role of government in
providing "opportunities" and a level playing field in the market process and the
traditional "Musgravian" tasks of government. The results
for Belgium are remarkable: Although
Belgium has the second best industrial productivity in the
world, it has the third worst public sector efficiency....
Read the full
study here:
|
|
|
|
 Entrepreneurship is lucrative.... and
just.
BY Edmund S. PHELPS - 2006 Economics Nobel Prize winner
 There
are two economic systems in the West. Several nations--including the
U.S., Canada and the U.K.--have a private-ownership system marked by
great openness to the implementation of new commercial ideas coming
from entrepreneurs, and by a pluralism of views among the financiers
who select the ideas to nurture by providing the capital and incentives
necessary for their development. Although much innovation comes from
established companies, as in pharmaceuticals, much comes from
start-ups, particularly the most novel innovations. This is free
enterprise, a k a capitalism.
The other system--in Western Continental
Europe--though also based on private ownership, has been modified by
the introduction of institutions aimed at protecting the interests of
"stakeholders" and "social partners." The system's institutions include
big employer confederations, big unions and monopolistic banks. Since
World War II, a great deal of liberalization has taken place. But new
corporatist institutions have sprung up: Co-determination (cogestion, or Mitbestimmung) has brought "worker councils" (Betriebsrat); and in Germany, a union representative
sits on the investment committee of corporations. The system operates
to discourage changes such as relocations and the entry of new firms,
and its performance depends on established companies in cooperation
with local and national banks. What it lacks in flexibility it tries to
compensate for with technological sophistication. So different is this
system that it has its own name: the "social market economy" in
Germany, "social democracy" in France and "concertazione" in Italy...
read
more in the Wall Street Journal here. |
One year after the NO-vote: Two thirds of
Frensh and Dutch voters want to either take back powers from the EU or leave it
altogether.
According to a new poll,
around two thirds of voters in both France and the Netherlands want to either take back powers from the EU or
leave it altogether. Detailed opinion polling
immediately after the Dutch referendum revealed that the top seven reasons given for voting no all
reflected opposition to deeper integration and opposition to losing control. The top
three reasons people voted no were over fears that "the Netherlands will have less
influence under the Constitution" (54%), that "large countries will determine the future
of Europe" (52%), and that "politicians will take decisions over our heads" (42%).
Results of the poll :
Do you want to :
|
France |
Netherlands |
Give
more power to the EU
|
18%
|
15% |
Keep
the current balance
|
16%
|
17% |
Take
back powers from the EU
|
53%
|
5 |
Leave
the EU altogether
|
10% |
14% |
|
|
Le modèle
social Européen semble incapable de relever les défis de
la
mondialisation, et a laissé l'Europe avec des problèmes
gigantesques:
une dette publique monumentale, une population rapidement
vieillissante, 19 millions de chômeurs, et un taux de
chômage des
jeunes de 18%, ces deux
chiffres pouvant être facilement
doublés si
l'on prend en compte le
chômage caché. La
réalité qu'on n'ose pas dire
est que le chômage européen réel a atteint le
niveau de 1 932,
soit
celui qui sévissait au plus profond de la Grande
Dépression, juste
avant que Hitler prenne le pouvoir. L'essence même de
l'Etat-providence
était en jeu.
Un
désastre organisé: Ce
désastre social européen est
en train de se développer alors que le reste du monde
prospère à un
rythme inégalé depuis trois décennies. 2004 et
2005 ont été des années
record. La Chine et l'Inde ont connu une croissance à deux
chiffres et
les Etats-Unis bénéficient pleinement des avantages de la
mondialisation. Pendant que l'économie mondiale prospère
à un taux
moyen de croissance supérieur à 4 %, l'Europe stagne
à un taux (gonflé)
de 1,5 %.
Martin De Vlieghere, Nicolas De Pape
|
Will the pension time bomb sink the Euro?
The
population in Europe is aging and declining. A trend that could have
been perfectly manageable with foresight could turn into a catastrophe
given the increasing unfunded liabilities arising from pay-as-you-go
(PAYGO) public pension programs, now more than 200 percent of GDP in
France and Italy, and more than 150 percent of GDP in Germany. This
situation is especially difficult in a continent where entitlements are
deeply entrenched in a welfare state culture. The European
Commission
recently stated, "There is a risk of unsustainable
public finances in some half of EU countries. Belgium, Germany, Greece,
Spain, France, Italy, Austria and Portugal are on this black list."
EMU
countries with Unfunded
pension schemes may want to follow the old Latin American
recipe—namely, devaluation, so that the ensuing inflation reduces the
purchasing power of benefits. But "Funded EMU countries " will probably
oppose devaluing the euro. A clash may ensue amidst the centers of
decisionmaking in Europe, especially
within
the board of the European Central Bank.
So, the PAYGO pension system could turn out to be one of the gravest
threats to the single European currency. ..... Read the essai here
|
The importance of Public Expenditure
reform for economic Growth and Stability
The ECB
names Ireland and Spain as examples of successful expenditure reforms
and concludes: "further expenditure reforms are needed in many
countries to reduce the level of spending on non-core tasks of the
public sector, enhance the efficiency and incentive effects of public
spending and prioritise productive objectives within public sector
activity. Spending reductions would alleviate fiscal imbalances while
also allowing for lower taxes. Such measures would support
macroeconomic stability, promote growth and create a better environment
for price stability."
read more: ECB Monthly bulletin page
61-73 | | | |
Henrik Rasmussen first lived in the Danish
Wellfare State, and then
under the American "Anglosaxon social model". He reports his ample
expericence. A testimony about two types of life-styles.
Sterk
presterende economieën zoals Ierland Portugal en het Verenigd
koninkrijk financieren hun overheid voornamelijk met consumptie-
belastingen en duidelijk
minder met directe belastingen. Het verschil tussen België en deze
sterke economieën Ierland en Portugal bedraagt bijna de helft...