Ireland

Micheál Collins of the Nevin Institute is out with a new paper looking at the burden of taxation by income decile by tax-type, and the results are very interesting. From the piece:

Using data from the most recent Household Budget Survey, this paper estimates both the direct and indirect taxation contributions of households. The paper examines, individually and collectively, the direct and indirect tax paid by households across the income deciles, alongside the overall average household contributions. The data is presented at the households and equivalised adult level.

This chart summarises the findings nicely.

Update: Micheál has responded to many of the main points raised in the thread here.

Germany

Marcel Fratzscher writes in the FT here.

France

Paul Krugman asks whether anyone thinks that Hollande has the faintest idea about how austerity is going to fix the French economy, in a context where France is clearly facing a huge demand-side problem.

I guess this is the latest statement of what the French are thinking. They recognise that there is a demand side problem in Europe, and hope that someone else (the ECB, and European institutions who might promote European investment) will address this. And they hope that if they do things that the Europeans like, then this will lead not only to saner European macroeconomic policy, but to investment by French companies as well:

“Je souhaite… que chacun prenne ses responsabilités”, poursuit Michel Sapin. “Le gouvernement a pris les siennes, je souhaite que l’Europe le fasse aussi. Mais il faut que les entreprises prennent les leurs.”

I sort of understand what is going on politically. One thing that strikes you about France is how partisan the politics there are. There are some — typically on the left — who think that demand is all that ever matters, and others — by no means all on the right, since VSP’s are to be found right across the spectrum — who think that supply is all that matters. So the government is trying to say that both demand and supply matter, and is describing this in terms of a bargain: if we are tough on spending and all the rest, then the French private sector and “Europe” should do their part, and invest.

But what if, as appears to be the case, the big reason that French companies are not investing is a lack of demand? And what if the Germans simply refuse to budge on macroeconomic policy, as seems likely? Is French policy simply going to consist of saying “pretty please”, or do they have a credible threat to move things along?

Threatening to leave the euro if things keep going the way they are might just do it (what would be the political point of the euro without France?), but does anyone see Hollande credibly threatening that? Does anyone see him credibly threatening anything? And what is his Plan B if Eurozone macroeconomic policy remains essentially unchanged? Does he even have one?

In the mean time, austerity in France will continue to hurt the French economy. How high in the polls does the FN have to rise before Hollande realises that what he is doing is neither prudent nor responsible, but incredibly dangerous?

And how long before the French political system is willing to acknowledge, publicly, that Montebourg’s warnings do not reflect a particularly “left wing” view of economics, but would be regarded as plain common sense by most macroeconomists?

 

 

The economic consequences of WW1 in Britain

Nick Crafts provides the latest instalment in the VoxEU series on the economics of World War 1, here.

The Future of Global Economics

The new issue of F&D is here : it features an array of articles to mark the 50th anniversary of F&D (and 70th anniversary of the Bretton Woods institutions).