The Italian people are hardworking, noble, and clever but held back by their own decadent institutions. With no end in sight, this mess hurts the entire European monetary union. It would be better for Italy and the other eurozone nations if Italy had an orderly departure from the euro.
Statism is on the rise, despite the fact that western nations were ill-prepared for the Coronavirus pandemic. Old leftist demands are now given even more credence than usual. How can classical liberals and capitalists counter this statist impulse?
The lockdown has accelerated the onset of the financial crisis. Global rescue programs are opening the door to a creeping nationalization. We now face the threat of the kinds of restrictions found in former planned economies.
The coronavirus crisis has exposed once again the fragility of our debt-based economic system. There are alternatives to this artificial system of the last 70 years. There are ways that we can better incentivize saving, which will create not only more productivity but more robustness.
We could be facing the biggest economic crisis of all time. Will politicians be able to learn the lessons from this and use the crisis as an opportunity for a new beginning in economic and public health policy?
At first it seemed as if the new President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde would simply continue the loose monetary policy of her predecessor. But now she has announced a green policy shift. This marks the beginning of a whole new act in the euro drama.
Many economists, policymakers, and central banks are afraid of deflation. Generally speaking, they do not even distinguish between different causes of price deflation—i.e. between price deflation caused by growth and price deflation caused by contractions in credit. In this interview, the economist Phillipp Bagus says that these fears of deflation are misguided.
