A European resolution fund for banks can lead to a breakthrough for the current stalemate. Cutting the link between the sovereign debt problem and the banking issue should be a priority.
If we want to increase the performance of government services, more is needed than just the introduction of new systems of information treatment. Too often one limits oneself to just automating existing paper-based processes.
Analysis shows trust to be an essential component for economic prosperity. Human built institutions enable us to maintain intensive cooperation that are of the essence for our society. Labour specialization, the accumulation of knowledge and the sharing of risks are all key to this.
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Instead of only looking at the status of the income distribution at one point in time, we foremost have to analyze how rigid these relations are. Policy- wise this implies foremost to put more emphasis on social mobility and accessible education.
Government policy targets the price and volume of medicine use to cut healthcare spending. In this analysis, Itinera examines the need and potential for such reforms, what are the advantages and disadvantages, and how to proceed further.
Policy makers need to bury the Greenspan doctrine that says it would be impossible to identify bubbles and one can only clean up after bubbles burst. The currency union needs macroprudential policy to fight excesses.
By a constitutional binding deficit rule policy makers will be forced to take the necessary budget measures and to stipulate a real long term policy for the public finances.