Blog
July 14, 2020
The negotiations on the European Union’s multi-annual financial perspective for 2021-2027 are underway. The European Commission’s recently updated budget proposal with suggested measures regarding the COVID-19 health and economic crisis and the recovery of the EU economy proposes only minor changes to the earlier version despite the extraordinary circumstances related to the pandemic and the increased need to use scarce taxpayers’ money in the most effective way possible.
July 3, 2020
Covid–19 has done more than cause a medical and economic crisis. It is provoking a major reorientation of the foreign policy of both the United States and Europe. At the heart of this is the question of their changing relationship with China.
July 1, 2020
While the media, right and left-wing parties and the average newspaper reader celebrate in anticipation of “helicopter money” from Brussels, or otherwise the so-called “Next Generation EU”, classical liberals wonder where all this money will come from while worrying about the potential impact on future generations.
June 29, 2020
If there seems to be any consensus among academics it is that the dominant Western liberal international order is coming to an end. With the arrival of Trump and the rise of China we must ask ourselves: which international order comes next?
June 25, 2020
At the moment, the general sense of alarm caused by the supposed consequences of climate change is something that is shared by all Western societies. In order to tackle these consequences, various measures have been taken, amongst them the restriction of traffic.
June 23, 2020
We often hear that managing a crisis like coronavirus depends on societal choices. The choice would be to save lives or economies. Health and economic data show that reality is much more complex than this simplification of the dilemma. Some countries have managed to accommodate both. Others, like France, have registered both a high mortality rate and a significant economic setback.
June 19, 2020
We almost pity American federal and state elected officials for having to deal with the situation caused by COVID-19. Overnight, social media users have become self-proclaimed epidemiologists, but it remains difficult to judge whether the measures taken by states and the federal government are too little too late or the right response to a health crisis. In some ways, it is tempting to favour the federal responses to the economic crisis as the circumstances are unlike those of previous crises.
June 17, 2020
Excessively high taxes on production, exceedingly slow authorizations for market launch, and an overbearing bureaucracy. France is ensuring that innovation, especially regarding pharmaceuticals, happens outside of its borders. Opinion piece by Cécile Philippe, president of the Economic Institute Molinari, published in Les Echos.
June 11, 2020
Given that even ‘profit’ now seems to be dirty word, it is no surprise that being accused of ‘profiteering’ during a crisis is about as bad as it can get. But there are some circumstances when an increase in prices in response to exceptional demand can actually be a good thing.
