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Boeri, Tito
4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Tito Boeri on immigration policy and the Left's defeat
Writing in the independent liberal blog La Voce, Tito Boeri looks into the reasons for the Left's thrashing in the European elections: "Put it down to the 26 million immigrants who have come to Europe in recent years. ... Recessions normally favour leftist parties. ... The current crisis, on the other hand, goes hand in hand with the strong electoral showings of right-wing and xenophobic movements across the continent and the crushing defeat for the very parties that had a hand in constructing the European welfare state. ... Instead of imitating their opponents, the Social Democrats should try to reform their social welfare programmes. ... That means tying eligibility for welfare to taxes and punishing abuse. ... Denmark and Sweden have taken the clearest steps in this direction. ... Can it be mere coincidence that the centre-left parties in both countries ... were the only ones not to suffer in the EU elections?"
» full article (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Social Policy / Employment, » Economic Policy, » Europe
Student protests in Italy
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated yesterday in Italy against the education reform passed by the senate and budget cuts in education. La Repubblica newspaper puts its finger on the problem: the short-term, precarious situation of employees in the schools and universities: "Education Minister [Mariastella] Gelmini has managed to bring together mothers and children, students and teachers. She has put an end to the generation conflict that was crippling this country. The university reform is not a reform at all, but simply the passive implementation of Finance Minister [Giulio] Tremonti's budget cuts. And it has revived the student movement. The demonstrations were directed against Gelmini. But the true enemy is the system of short-term contracts in the education sector. 87,000 jobs will be cut, with no regard for merit or quality. And the victims are the employees. ... The students, for their part, condemn the lack of new posts for young professors and demand new research programmes."
» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Education, » Labour market / Services, » Science / Research, » Italy
Joint action required
The Financial Times Deutschland documents an appeal by leading European and American economists exhorting the European states to take concerted action in the current financial market crisis. "The most recent events in the US have shown that it is pointless to try saving individual banks one after another. We need a systemic response. In Europe this means that the banking sector must be re-capitalised under the leadership of the European Union. ... An end must be put to the chaos on the financial markets before the real economy is seriously damaged. The savings of hundreds of millions of Europeans are in jeopardy. If the crisis causes the loan market to dry up this will lead to the large-scale destruction of jobs and companies. ... In Europe, saving an individual bank means that either a single nation shoulders the burden even though its neighbouring states also suffer from the side effects or a last minute improvised community action plan which entails sharing the costs is implemented. Up to now this latter procedure has made sense, but European banks are too independent of each other for national efforts or sporadic coordinated schemes to suffice. Any intervention by a nation state and any joint action by a small group of countries can have unforeseen repercussions for other European nations. ... Pan-European solutions should be developed where appropriate. ... To prevent crises of these dimensions in the future it will also be necessary to regulate the financial markets and institutes at a European level."
» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Europe, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » Richard Baldwin, » Alberto Alesina, » Willem Buiter, » Francesco Giavazzi, » Daniel Gros, » Stefano Micossi, » Guido Tabellini, » Charles Wyplosz, » Klaus Zimmermann
The teams of others
La Repubblica regrets that violent fans and the lack of economic transparency are discouraging financially strong investors from buying Italian football clubs. "After the various takeovers, the British Premier League is now the richest in the world. ... Why are rich oil sheiks and Russian oligarchs not interested in Italian fooball clubs? ... Investors in Italy must fear they will not be able to control what they have bought. The clubs are held hostage to the so called organised supporters, comprising in part real criminal gangs whose acts of violence can do irreparable damage to property and society. Underlying these collective acts is an economic intent for which it is difficult to find and prosecute individual perpetrators. Added to that is the powerful role of football managers, and last but not least conflicts of interest. Italian clubs get their money almost exclusively from the rights to television broadcasts. The people conducting the negotiations often pursue their own private interests, in conflict with those of other clubs. In a word, football suffers from the same ills as the entire Italian economy."
» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Sport, » United Kingdom, » Italy
