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Begin New Search Topic Financial Crisis Political Geography Europe Journal The International Spectator

1. A Slow Fuse: Italy and the EU Debt Crisis

Author:
Jonathan Hopkin
Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Italy is firmly in the grip of an austerity programme mandated by the European Union institutions, and executed by an unelected technocrat. This state of affairs is at once the result of the acute and unexpected crisis of the financial and economic integration of the eurozone, and an expression of the failures of the Italian political class. Although the euro crisis has been mishandled by European elites, Italy's long-term economic decline, and the inability of Italian party politicians to generate a sustainable coalition to address Italy's economic problems, hinders an exit from the crisis.
Topic:
Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

2. Fostering Economic Growth through a "European" Debt

Author:
Maria Teresa Salvemini
Publication Date:
09-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
There is a general consensus that the long period of stagnation that has afflicted the European economy is a symptom of more profound structural problems that cannot be solved with expansionary macroeconomic demand policies, much less left up to market forces or financial rigour. The most important problem is the low productivity of European economies, which has now been recorded for many years. This low productivity can be explained in a number of ways, including inadequate public investment in both physical and human capital. Although the link between public investment and productivity and efficiency in the private sector is indirect, and therefore cannot always be precisely quantified, there can be no doubt that the effect of market failures are being felt in numerous sectors of the economy: advanced and applied research, training in information technologies, environmentally compatible infrastructure, low-yield and capital-intensive investments, to mention just a few. Thus, there is room for new development policies based on building the public capital – material and immaterial – which is needed to stimulate that growth of productivity in the private sector that economic theory and historical experience have found to be important.
Topic:
Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe