Year: 2012

The collapse in trust in the EU and its institutions

I spent a few hours today revising and updating this paper, and was both astonished, and not surprised at all, to see the extent to which trust in the EU and its institutions collapsed in 2011. The figures below show the percentage of respondents in Eurobarometer surveys saying they trusted the institution in question, minus the percentage who said they didn’t trust it. The decline in 2011 is really quite dramatic. I am sure that the usual suspects will tell us that what Europe obviously needs is a better communications strategy. Personally, I think that less destructive economic policies would have a bigger impact.

(Source: Eurobarometer)

Central Bank Q3 Bulletin

Available here.  Minor improvement in growth forecast for this year, offset by minor reduction in growth forecast for next year.

As always, the ‘signed articles’ are of special interest

  • Cost Competitiveness and Export Performance of the Irish Economy by Derry O’Brien and John Scally
  • Recent Trends in Irish Expenditure and Prices by Colin Bermingham
  • Analysis of Recent Monetary Operations & TARGET2 Developments  by Patrick Haran and Samuel Bailey

The New IMF Analytical Framework

The IMF has released new documentation of its revised approach to country surveillance, with a view to increasing the global coherence of its analysis

  • Pilot External Sector Report here
  • PIN here

Bond Investors

The NYT profiles PIMCO co-CEO  Mohamed El-Erian here.

The Future of Economics

This article collects the views of some of the most active research economists – see here.