Bloomberg (November 4)
A United Nations panel released its latest grim report on climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change asserts that irreversible damage could result unless climate change is arrested quickly. Unfortunately, “another report won’t slow climate change…. All this was known. Doing something about it—that’s the hard part, and where most politicians, especially in the U.S., are failing.” Governments need to take action and “change their policies.”
Tags: Climate change, Damage, IPCC, Irreversible, Policies, Politicians, U.S., UN
Financial Times (October 1)
“For too long, Britain’s mainstream politicians and business leaders have been reluctant to make the positive case for the UK’s membership of the EU. It has become the subject that dares not speak its name.” This must change lest the UK carelessly vote away the benefits the EU brings. “Britain’s pro-Europeans can no longer be silent.”
Tags: Benefits, Britain, Business leaders, EU membership, Mainstream, Politicians, UK, Vote
Wall Street Journal (September 5)
“You can’t say Mario Draghi isn’t doing his part.” Trying to deliver another economic “miracle,” the European Central Bank (ECB) President lowered interest rates and increased the negative rate institutions pay on funds deposited with the ECB. “Too bad the politicians keep using Mr. Draghi as an excuse to dodge their responsibility to pass pro-growth reforms…. Europe’s main economic problem is a political class that doesn’t want to address the structural impediments to growth that have nothing to do with monetary policy.”
Tags: ECB, Europe, Excuse, Growth reforms, Interest rates, Mario Draghi, Monetary policy, Politicians, Responsibility, Structural impediments
Bloomberg (August 19)
The annual meeting of central bankers kicks off this week in Jackson Hole and it’s worth paying attention. “Central bankers, a group of largely independent technocrats, wield more power over the fates of politicians, investors and regular folk than ever before. In the absence of government action, they are bearing most of the burden of supporting economic recoveries in the U.S. and Europe. With their bond purchases and other unconventional policies, they have become a major force holding up financial markets around the world.”
Tags: Bond purchases, Central bankers, Economic recoveries, Europe, Financial markets, Government, Investors, Jackson Hole, Politicians, Power, U.S.
New York Times (July 17)
Australia became the first country to repeal a carbon tax, and “opposition politicians and environmentalists in Australia reacted with dismay…saying that it made Australia the first country to reverse progress on fighting climate change.”
Los Angeles Times (June 17)
Despite the politicians who still deny climate change, major insurers are taking steps to manage the potentially costly reality created by climate change. “As insurers begin to shift the costs of that reality through rate increases, exclusions, lawsuits and market retreat, consumers can ask such politicians, ‘Why, if climate change is a hoax, are we paying for it?’”
Tags: Climate change, Consumers, Costs, Exclusions, Hoax, Insurers, Lawsuits, Market retreat, Politicians, Rate increases
Wall Street Journal (June 6)
Mario Draghi is again being pressed “to rescue Europe’s politicians from their own economic failures. If only the politicians would give him pro-growth economic reform in return for all of his monetary exertions.” Under Draghi’s leadership, the EU Central Bank taken additional measures to stimulate the economy, including charging banks interest on funds deposited with the central bank, in the hope that bankers will be more inclined to lend their funds to businesses and individuals.
Tags: Banks, Draghi, Economy, EU Central Bank, Europe, Failures, Growth, Interest, Lending, Monetary stimulus, Politicians, Reform
USA Today (May 28)
“Despite what politicians say,” entrepreneurs don’t create many jobs. “Successful entrepreneurs almost always create real value in the economy and grow the economic pie for all of us,” but they “do not always create enormous numbers of jobs, particularly for the middle class.” In fact, “the creative destruction that accompanies entrepreneurship today often destroys middle-class jobs.”
Tags: Creative destruction, Economy, Entrepreneurs, Jobs, Middle class, Politicians, Value
The Economist (April 26)
With the population of those aged 65 and over nearly set to double in the next two decades, many economies seem poised for stagnation. In actuality, there are new possibilities for older workers to continue contributing to the economy. Skilled workers are already doing this, but “politicians need to convince less-skilled older voters that it is in their interests to go on working. Doing so will not be easy. But the alternative—economic stagnation and even greater inequality—is worse.”
Tags: Economy, Inequality, Older workers, Politicians, Population, Skilled, Stagnation, Voters
Wall Street Journal (October 11)
The misleading “story you hear in Brussels, Berlin and Frankfurt” is that “Greece’s fiscal adjustment is on track and its economy is bottoming out.…. Europe’s politicians prefer the status quo of eternal, rolling bailouts because it serves their purposes. They never have to present their taxpayers with a bill for the Greek rescue. And while Greece’s economy never really recovers, it might avoid any new crisis.” The time has come for more realistic reckoning.
Tags: Bailouts, Crisis, Economy, Europe, Greece, Greek rescue, Politicians, Recovery, Status quo, Taxpayers
