A political economy fit for purpose: what the UK could learn from Germany

Alex Keynes 20 January 2012
Is the UK wants to diversify its economy and stem rising inequalities it could learn a few tricks from the German model: do away with narrow-minded anti-union attitudes and restore the link between finance and industry

Sanctioning Iranian oil

Reyhaneh Noshiravani 19 January 2012
With increasing geopolitical instability in oil producing states and the barriers that stand in the way of reaching a multilateral policy, the threat of sanctions in Iran only serves to intensify uncertainty surrounding oil price forecasts for 2012

Strait of Hormuz: Iran’s bluff and the west’s fears

Richard Rousseau 19 January 2012
Iranian military action in the Strait of Hormuz is highly unlikely. It would not at all benefit most global and regional powers and would have disastrous consequences for Iran itself.

Credit rating agencies: the wrong institutions for public judgement

Tony Curzon Price 16 January 2012
Whether the ratings agencies get this or that decision right or wrong - they were probably right in the case of the European downgrades - is not the point. They have become the buck-passing agencies for weakened states. The most important public judgements of credit-worthiness ought to be made in public institutions, not behind corporate doors

High pay: what Machiavelli would have recommended a politician do

Tony Curzon Price 9 January 2012
It's true that high pay for bosses serves no purpose except keeping them (and their headquarters) in the country. The only real solution is economic policy coordination. In its absence, Machiavelli would have been proud of the proposals and statements on display this new year in the UK

The great Ethiopian land-grab: feudalism, leninism, neo-liberalism ... plus ça change

René Lefort 31 December 2011
Land in Ethiopia is being leased to agro-industry investors on very long terms and below market rates. The beneficiaries have good political connections. But land has been the play-thing of centralising authoritarians throughout Ethiopia's recent history

Is inflation a good tax? Can we have an honest political discussion about it?

Julian Sayarer 30 December 2011
UK inflation at 5% is considered almost a victory by the economic managers of the nation. Yet it is a blunt instrument with strong redistributive effects. So what is a well-managed currency, and can we have an honest political discussion about it?

Should Brussels resist Hungary's ‘Putinization’? Or do EU member states have a ‘democratic over-ride’?

Jan-Werner Mueller 30 December 2011
The Copenhagen criteria for EU accession set strict democratic pre-requisites for any country wishing to join the club. But how should the EU react when members turn anti-democratic? This question of principle is given burning relevance today as Hungary's democracy comes under executive assault – even if Britain's parliamentary absolutism remains historically legitimate.

Risk: tricky stuff

David Malone 26 December 2011
If you are a banker what you want is risky, high interest rate loans without the risk... Sooner or later it follows that what the bankers need to do above all else is to elevate financial contracts above democracy.

Chinese companies under scrutiny in Zimbabwe

Andrew Mambondiyani 14 December 2011
Ten years into the Look East policy, Zimbabwe is showing itself to be a not-so-satisfied customer of Chinese investment.

Threat to opportunity: the new logic of climate policy

Andrew Bowman 14 December 2011
In the clutches of recession, the Ryanair chief executive may now breathe a sigh of relief as binding emission reductions seem further off than ever before. Now, the only thinkable solutions to climate change are those which also provide an immediate, tangible boost to economic growth. But can market logic provide the solution to this ever-escalating crisis?

Nationalism casts a shadow over European democracy

Francesca E.S. Montemaggi 14 December 2011
It is nation states that have emasculated European institutions. What is often branded as the ‘national interest’ is nothing but a justification for the pursuit of internal politics.

Why I wish I could condemn Cameron's decision whole-heartedly but can't

Tony Curzon Price 9 December 2011
It is now that we really need a genuine democratic European movement with strong civil society roots. But it doesn't exist, and in its absence, the Commission is an untrustworthy institution.

India’s proliferating relations with Africa

Anirudh Menon 9 December 2011
India’s demand for resource security, potential trade and investment opportunities and a strategic partnership with the African Union is similar to that of China; but the approach that each nation has taken is rather different.

A Greek tragedy: the making of the Greek and Euro-Atlantic ruling classes

Vassilis K. Fouskas 5 December 2011
Who is George Papandreou? The author challenges what he sees as the defence over recent years on this website of PASOK’s reform agenda by Anthony Barnett and Mary Kaldor. This neoliberalism in sheep’s clothing, he argues, has nothing to do with the radical democratic reform proposed by the Arab uprisings and Occupy movements. This is our latest debate on whether Europe can make it.

Euro end-game or end of crisis? Eurozone heads into critical summit

Kirsty Hughes 5 December 2011
There will be huge sighs of relief if the potential political and economic catastrophe of a break-up of the euro is avoided. But a return to 'normal' politics it will not be.

The material stakes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo elections

Pete Jones 5 December 2011

Private interest, not public voice, governs the immediate future of the DRC - the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Capitalism no longer exists: it's communism for the rich

Greg Pytel 5 December 2011
The Occupy movement criticises the basic premises of capitalism, but the current economy bears little resemblance to them. 'Capitalism' is now a global fraud enterprise, a million miles from its free market roots.

This crisis is no excuse for technocratic government

Eberhard Kienle 5 December 2011
In the author's prescient May 2010 article there is the central observation that we are seeing a fundamental fault-line separating economic logic and political legitimacy. The author would have preferred to be less right. Today, saving democracy from the market means all democracies facing the market together.

Fred Halliday was right: The LSE, Gaddafi money and what is missing from the Woolf Report

Anthony Barnett 1 December 2011

Fred Halliday has been vindicated in his long battle with the LSE over taking Gaddafi money. But the underlying reason - corporate and government pressure on the university is not addressed by the Woolf Report into the scandal.

Euro: Writing on the wall?

Our debate about the euro and the euro zone crisis.

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