"The truth, however, is that cutting greenhouse gas emissions is affordable as well as essential. Serious studies say that we can achieve sharp reductions in emissions with only a small impact on the economy’s growth. And the depressed economy is no reason to wait — on the contrary, an agreement in Copenhagen would probably help the economy recover.
[...]
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that by 2050 the emissions limits in recent proposed legislation would reduce real G.D.P. by between 1 percent and 3.5 percent from what it would otherwise have been. If we split the difference, that says that emissions limits would slow the economy’s annual growth over the next 40 years by around one-twentieth of a percentage point — from 2.37 percent to 2.32 percent".
Read Krugman's piece in the NYTimes here.
maandag 7 december 2009
The oil price and the macroeconomy: What’s going on?
In the 1970s, large increases in the price of oil were associated with sharp decreases in output and large increases in inflation. In the 2000s, even larger increases in the price of oil were associated with much milder movements. This column attributes the difference in the US to more flexible labour markets and more credible monetary policy during the Great Moderation.
Read the article from O. Blanchard on Vox.eu here.
Why a cap-and-trade system can be bad for your health
The purpose of a cap-and-trade system is to help in the fight against global climate change. This column warns that a unilateral approach could increase global emissions by shifting production to more carbon-intensive methods abroad. Acting alone, the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme may be doing more harm than good.
Read the article from D. Gros on Vox.eu here.
Qui pollue le plus?
Selon le Programme de l'ONU pour le développement (PNUD), moins de 3% des Burundais ou des Tchadiens ont le courant et 13% à peine en Birmanie ou en Afghanistan.
Lisez l'article dans LLB ici.
vrijdag 4 december 2009
Arbeidsmarkt maakt herstel kwetsbaar
Er komt een economisch herstel in 2010, maar er zijn factoren die dat prille herstel de kop in kunnen duwen. Dat is de boodschap die Anton Brender, hoofdeconoom van de vermogensbeheerder Dexia Asset Management, meegaf tijdens de voorstelling van zijn vooruitzichten voor volgend jaar. Onder andere een verdere stijging van de euro en een kwetsbare arbeidsmarkt zijn factoren die een rem kunnen vormen. Lees het volledige artikel in De Tijd hier.
Reform or Else
Health care reform hangs in the balance. Its fate rests with a handful of “centrist” senators — senators who claim to be mainly worried about whether the proposed legislation is fiscally responsible. Read Krugman's column in the NYTimes here.
Bernanke Says Fed ‘Should Have Done More’
Under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike, Ben S. Bernanke on Thursday defended his record as chairman of the Federal Reserve but conceded that the central bank’s lapses contributed to the financial crisis. Read the complete article in the NYTimes here.
Quel Etat pour quelles performances économiques?
La crise financière a relancé le débat sur le rôle de l'Etat dans le système économique, et cela sous l’angle tant de la gestion de situations d'urgence que de la politique industrielle. Le XVIIIe Congrès des Economistes belges de langue française a apporté sa contribution au débat. Il est logique que l’accent des contributions ait été mis sur les défis, sur les faiblesses et sur les manquements. Ceci ne doit toutefois pas masquer les atouts de nos régions et les progrès observés dans différents domaines de l’intervention publique. Du domaine de la formation à la qualité des modes d’organisation de la vie économique, l’accent placé ici sur la politique économique ne doit pas faire oublier que la responsabilité qui est engagée n’est pas uniquement celle des hommes et des femmes politiques mais bien celle de chacun.
Consultez le rapport ici.
Marx, Bayer en de bonden
Lonen bevriezen is niet leuk, maar de werknemers in de chemiesector behoren tot de best betaalde groep in ons land. En dat van dat langer werken is ook een beetje een apart geval, aangezien een werkweek bij Bayer er al na 33,6 uur op zit. Het voorstel is nu om 35,2 uur per week te presteren. Stel u voor. De vakbonden noemen dat onbespreekbaar. Ik noem dat onvoorstelbaar. Lees de volledige column van Lorin Parys in De Standaard hier.
donderdag 3 december 2009
Europe Bypassed on Climate Summit
No political entity has pushed harder for the Copenhagen conference on climate change to succeed than the European Union. But just days before the opening of the United Nations-sponsored meeting, the Europeans have been largely pushed to the sidelines, watching as the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, China and the United States, seek to set the rules of the game. Read the complete article in The NYTimes here.
The Call From the Swiss Minaret
Read the complete opinion piece from Claudio Cordone, senior director of Amnesty International, in The NYTimes here.
A Vote for Intolerance
Disgraceful. That is the only way to describe the success of a right-wing initiative to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland, where 57 percent of voters cast ballots for a bigoted and mean-spirited measure. Read the complete editorial of The NYTimes here.
Les éoliennes les plus puissantes de la planète sont belges
Les éoliennes les plus puissantes de la planète (6 MW chacune) sont implantées à Estinnes-au-Mont, près de Binche. Propriété de la société belgo-néerlandaise WindVision, ces machines de fabrication allemande (Enercon) affichent des dimensions colossales : 198 mètres jusqu'à la pointe de la pale et un diamètre de 127 mètres !
Lisez l'article dans Le Vif ici.
woensdag 2 december 2009
Grote afwezige op Citibankproces
"Het is een stresstest voor de Belgische instellingen die toezicht houden op de banken." Lees het volledige opiniestuk van Hans Bonte in De Morgen hier.
dinsdag 1 december 2009
Climate change A heated debate
"This newspaper believes that global warming is a serious threat, and that the world needs to take steps to try to avert it. That is the job of the politicians. But we do not believe that climate change is a certainty. There are no certainties in science. Prevailing theories must be constantly tested against evidence, and refined, and more evidence collected, and the theories tested again. That is the job of the scientists. When they stop questioning orthodoxy, mankind will have given up the search for truth. The sceptics should not be silenced." Read the complete article in The Economist here.
De Zwitsers zijn bang
WIE DURFT EEN PLURALISTISCH BELEID NOG AAN? — 'De beslissing van mijn landgenoten om minaretten te verbieden, wordt ingegeven door angst', schrijft TARIQ RAMADAN. En ook de rest van en de rest van Europa schrikt terug voor een moedig beleid, gericht op religieus en cultureel pluralisme. Lees het opiniestuk in de Standaard hier.
Europese soloslim in Kopenhagen dodelijk voor Vlaamse jobs
Eurosceptici durven nog te vloeken in de klimaatkerk. De EU wil het voortouw nemen in Kopenhagen, maar wat zijn de gevolgen voor onze economie? Lees het volledige opiniestuk van Dedecjer eb Eppink in De Tijd hier.
maandag 30 november 2009
UK: Skills for Growth
Read more about this national strategy for economic growth and individual prosperity here.
The Dubai crisis
The tragedy of the black hole in Dubai’s finances is that it has dealt a blow not only to its own reputation but to that of the United Arab Emirates — and beyond that to the Arab Gulf as a whole. One might even go so far as to say that it has dealt a painful blow to the entire Arab world. Read the complete article in the NYTimes here.
The Jobs Imperative
If you’re looking for a job right now, your prospects are terrible. There are six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings, and the average duration of unemployment — the time the average job-seeker has spent looking for work — is more than six months, the highest level since the 1930s. Read Krugman's column in the NYTimes here.
Open Source as a Model for Business Is Elusive
In many ways, MySQL embodies the ideals of the populist software movement known as open source, in which a program’s creator releases it to the world free of charge, and legions of volunteers contribute improvements that are also freely shared. Read the complete article in the NYTimes here.
"Il faut un marché du carbone mondial"
L’accord qui pourrait aboutir à Copenhague risque d’être insatisfaisant. L’essentiel est qu’il jette les bases solides d’une politique écologique mondiale.
Lisez l'article complet dans LLB ici.
vrijdag 27 november 2009
We are all Belgians now
EUROPE, it is said, must resist the temptation to become a giant Switzerland: ie, a smug, rich, insular place. But judging by the antics of European leaders as they filled two top European Union jobs on November 19th, the club faces another danger altogether: becoming a giant Belgium. Read the complete column in The Economist here.
Taxing the Speculators
Should we use taxes to deter financial speculation? Yes, say top British officials, who oversee the City of London, one of the world’s two great banking centers. Other European governments agree — and they’re right. Read Krugman's column in The New York Times here.
donderdag 26 november 2009
Global Warming With the Lid Off
So apparently wrote Phil Jones, director of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) and one of the world's leading climate scientists, in a 2005 email to "Mike." Judging by the email thread, this refers to Michael Mann, director of the Pennsylvania State University's Earth System Science Center. We found this nugget among the more than 3,000 emails and documents released last week after CRU's servers were hacked and messages among some of the world's most influential climatologists were published on the Internet. Read the complete opinion article in the WSJ here.
Where does energy R&D come from?
How will proposed increases in energy R&D funding affect other types of R&D spending? This column provides evidence that should dampen concerns about crowding out – increased R&D in response to policies designed to enhance clean-energy innovation most likely comes at the expense of R&D in dirty-energy technologies.
Read this article from D. Popp on Vox.eu here.
woensdag 25 november 2009
246,000 foreign students are studying science, engineering and mathematics at American universities.
Read the complete DLC trade fact here.
dinsdag 24 november 2009
Merci d'avance, Yves!
FRANSTALIG BELGIE VERWELKOMT DE NIEUWE LETERME — Is er dan echt geen alternatief voor een terugkeer als premier van Yves Leterme? Natuurlijk wel, CHRISTOPHE DEBORSU kan er zo twee noemen. Maar het valt hem ook op dat geen enkele Waalse partij een veto uitsprak tegen Leterme. Lees het volledige opiniestuk van Christophe de Borsu hier.
Payback time The European Union lashes out at hedge funds and private equity
WHEN a fight breaks out in a bar, you don’t hit the man who started it. You clobber the person you don’t like instead.” That is the cynical verdict of a fund-management executive on the European Union’s proposed Alternative Investment Fund Managers directive. Even though the credit crunch was largely the fault of (highly regulated) banks, politicians seized the chance to have a pop at the unpopular hedge-fund and private-equity industries. Read the complete article in The Economist here.
Europe's public finances Weighed down
THE BAD thing for politicians about good news on the economy is that they can no longer avert their eyes from the state of public finances. Figures released on November 13th showed that the euro-area economy crawled out of recession in the three months to the end of September. GDP rose by 0.4%, the first quarterly increase for more than a year. Given the scale of the downturn, the recovery is modest: GDP was still 4.1% lower than a year earlier. Read the complete article in The Economist here.
The Coming Deficit Disaster
The president says he understands the urgency of our fiscal crisis, but his policies are the equivalent of steering the economy toward an iceberg. President Barack Obama took office promising to lead from the center and solve big problems. He has exerted enormous political energy attempting to reform the nation's health-care system. But the biggest economic problem facing the nation is not health care. It's the deficit. Recently, the White House signaled that it will get serious about reducing the deficit next year—after it locks into place massive new health-care entitlements. This is a recipe for disaster, as it will create a new appetite for increased spending and yet another powerful interest group to oppose deficit-reduction measures. Read the complete column in the WSJ here.
Technology Is Stranger Than Fiction
In a time of great change, fiction can sometimes provide better understanding than facts alone. "As the pace of technological change accelerates, the job of the science fiction writer becomes not harder, but easier—and more necessary," he writes. "After all, the more confused we are by our contemporary technology, the more opportunities there are to tell stories that lessen that confusion." Read the complete column in the WSJ here.
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