FESSUD partner, Berlin School of Economics and Law organised two sessions at the ‘Inequality and the Future of Capitalism’ conference in Berlin, 30 October – 01 November 2014.
The first session, “Addressing divergence and disparities in the Euro area”, was related to WP9 research. The session was chaired by Jerome Creel and contained 4 presentations stemming from the FESSUD project. The session started by a discussion on the origins of the Euro Area imbalances with a first presentation by Patricia Peinado. Then Nina Dodig presented an analysis of the current policies used to address these issues and identified the problems thereof. Jérôme Creel showed the severe risk of deflation the current policies cause, while Eckhard Hein presented an alternative policy proposal that aims at addressing the imbalances and leading the whole Euro Area on a sustainable growth path.
On the origins of European imbalances in the context of the European Integration
Carlos Carrasco, Patricia Peinado, University of the Basque Country
EU policies addressing current account imbalances in the EMU: an assessment
Nina Dodig, Hansjörg Herr, Berlin School of Economics and Law
Policy alternatives addressing divergence and disparities between EMU member countries
Eckhard Hein, Daniel Detzer, Berlin School of Economics and Law
Is the reduction of macro imbalances in the Euro area worth a deflation?
Jérôme Creel, Christophe Blot, OFCE
The second FESSUD session, “Changes in the Relationship between Financial and Real Sector – Country Studies”, was chaired by Eckhard Hein and exposed 4 of the FESSUD country studies from work package 3. The latter aimed at analysing the effects of financialisation on inequality, the firm sector and investment, as well as the household sector and its consumption behaviour and how those effects determined the respective growth regimes of the different countries.
Trevor Evans presented the country study for the USA, as the country of origin of the financial crisis; Spain was also highlighted as an European example for a debt-led consumption boom country, in which growth was driven by a real estate bubble and growing the indebtedness level of the household sector; Germany was presented as an export-led mercantilist economy, which had to rely on exports to achieve its meagre growth due to depressed domestic demand; finally the case of France was addressed, with the most functional regime, based on domestic demand without excessive reliance on growing indebtedness of the private households. All over it became clear that neither the debt driven model of Spain or the US, nor the German export-led models are sustainable or functional and that both types of regimes need urgent reforms.
The rescue of the big banks: The 2007-2009 crisis and the restructuring of financial capital in the US
Trevor Evans, Berlin School of Economics and Law
Financialisation and economic crisis in Spain
Catalina Gálvez, Ana Gonzalez, Jesus Ferreiro, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
The French economy and financialisation: from the oil shocks to the financial crisis of 2008
Jérôme Creel, OFCE & ESCP Europe, Gérard Cornilleau, OFCE Paris
Finance-dominated capitalism in Germany, deep recession and rapid recovery
Daniel Detzer, Eckhard Hein, Berlin School of Economics and Law
To visit the Conference’s website, please click here.
More PPT presentations to download here.
