Links between migration and discrimination

This report aims at describing the links between nationality and the protection from discrimination under EU and international law, as well as in the domestic legal orders of the EU Member States. Its purpose is to identify whether third-country nationals are protected once they enter the European Union from discrimination on grounds of nationality, or from discrimination on grounds of race, ethnic origin or religion, in situations where nationality is used as a proxy for these grounds. It is available in English, French and German.

Read this report from the EC here.

Ominous lessons of the 1930s for Europe

The Great Depression taught us several lessons. The first one is that central banks must be ready to provide ample liquidity to save the banking system. Present-day central banks did exactly that. They did not repeat the mistakes of the 1930s when their predecessors tightened money in the face of a banking crisis. The second lesson is that governments should not try to balance the budget when economic activity collapses. Governments today did not repeat the mistakes made by many governments in the 1930s that desperately tried to balance their books when the economy crashed. ...

Read the full article in the FT here.

A bank levy will not stop the doomsday cycle

The last few weeks of political developments around the American-European financial system make us feel like we are back in the USSR. During the final years of communism’s decline, Soviet bureaucrats argued for futile tweaks to laws that would crack down on speculators and close “loopholes” – all in the vain hope they could keep the unproductive system of incentives intact. The US, UK and key European countries are now making the same errors. Rather than recognising the dangerous systemic failures in our financial system, their leaders are proposing bandages that can – at best – only postpone another, possibly much larger, meltdown. ...

Read the full article in the FT here.

The Greek tragedy deserves a global audience

The Greek government has promised to slash its fiscal deficit from an estimated 12.7 per cent of gross domestic product last year to 3 per cent in 2012. Is it plausible that this will happen? Not very. But Greece is merely the canary in the fiscal coal mine. Other eurozone members are also under pressure to slash fiscal deficits. What might such pressure do to vulnerable members, to the eurozone and to the world economy? ....

Read the full article from M. Wolf in the FT here.

Les plans de relance économique

Lisez cette publication de la BNB ici.