Next month will mark the tenth anniversary of the global financial
crisis, which began on August 9, 2007, when Banque National de Paris
announced that the value of several of its funds, containing what were
supposedly the safest possible US mortgage bonds, had evaporated. From
that fateful day, the advanced capitalist world has experienced its
longest period of economic stagnation since the decade that began with
the 1929 Wall Street crash and ended with the outbreak of World War II
ten years later.
Could this be about
to happen in Europe? France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron, based his
election campaign on a synthesis of “right-wing” labor reforms and a
“left-wing” easing of fiscal and monetary conditions – and his ideas are
gaining support in Germany and among European Union policymakers. If
“Macroneconomics” – the attempt to combine conservative structural
policies with progressive macroeconomics – succeeds in replacing the
market fundamentalism that failed in 2007, the lost decade of economic
stagnation could soon be over – at least for Europe.
Read more: A “Macroneconomic” Revolution?
Suppose, that the “progressive” economics of full employment and
redistribution could be combined with the “conservative” economics of
free trade and labor-market liberalization. Both macroeconomic and
structural policies would then be easier to justify politically – and
much more likely to succeed.
Read more: A “Macroneconomic” Revolution?
