The UK labour market at the beginning of 2016 is in a rather good shape. The rate of unemployment has decreased steadily in the last two years and is now…
The European Union has experienced an increase in asylum applications for several
years, with 2014 seeing 570,800 applications, an increase of 47% compared to 2013.
The year-to-year increase in applications will be even more pronounced in 2015.
Germany, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland alone expect 1.3
million applications in 2015 — a new high since the Balkan crisis of the 1990s.
Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the 21st century” was dubbed as “blockbuster”. But for a group of French intellectuals under the lead of IREF, a free market institute in Paris, it was important to demonstrate that the French economist’s “Capital” did not deserve its commercial success. “Anti-Piketty” is a collection of essays by renowned international economists and historians, critical of Thomas Piketty’s volume.
Two years ago, prof. Vani K. Borooah published a working paper for the IREF with the warning title “When the Lights Go Out“. We are pleased to announce that the working paper has been since extended into a fully fledged book, now published by Palgrage Macmillan.
According to the latest statistics, the economic growth in the United Kingdom has reached 3% (annual rate) in the last quarter of 2013. This is the highest rate since 2007. For comparison, the French growth was 0.3% yoy (2013).
A company is mismanaged when some indicators are in the red such as factory costs higher than those of its competitors; highly unprofitable activities; general and administrative costs much higher than those of its competitors; too many employees in too many locations; outstanding wages and incredible social benefits; various waste; assets sold at low prices and no return on investment; lack of reaction to badly needed reforms.
If the Banque de France’s 2012 financial statements are compared to those of the Bundesbank (German Central Bank), it can be argued that the Banque de France is very poorly managed.
It is the stunning figure revealed by Jean-Philippe’s Delsol in his book “Why I Am Going To Leave France”, an IREF bestseller.
Between the public sector (5.2 millions), the parapublic sector (2 millions), those who are granted the public allowance called “Active Solidarity Revenue” (1.3 millions) and those who are granted direct or indirect public allowances (6 millions), the total amount of the French people receiving public money is superior to those working in the private sector!
A short presentation of IREF ‘Yearbook on Taxation in Europe’ Series
Among the many ways to understand the climate of opinion and the culture of a country, looking at its fiscal system is one of the most rewarding. Sure, fiscal systems almost always rhyme with complexity; each system bearing the weight of its history. But the attempts to change the system, to give it a new direction, are highly instructive.
General assessment
2012 was rather good fiscal year for Bulgaria – while the economy is still underperforming, tax revenues almost fully recovered to their pre-crisis (2008) record high levels and the budget position was close to balanced, with deficit being far less than 1% for 2012. There were no big moves in tax policy, except for the introduction of 10% tax on interest payments from bank deposits – thus widening the base of the flat tax.
2013 already proved to be a challenging year for Bulgaria, with protests throughout the country and a caretaker government being appointed by the president. The social unrest in Bulgaria was fundamentally driven by the depressed labour market and the high electricity bills in the winter. While there are serious challenges ahead and a political uncertainty prior to the elections, one should note that there is no “fiscal fire” in Bulgaria. There are of course long term fiscal challenges – pressure of social systems (pensions, health), low fiscal reserve, the quality of public spending – but there are no immediate pitfalls that should be addressed in an urgent manner.
From the accounting viewpoint, the Czech government is relatively efficient in taming deficits. The chosen strategy for the whole period 2010–2014 is to raise approximately one extra Czech koruna in taxes for every two korunas saved from previously planned expenditures. On the other hand, the latest Convergence Program update reveals that over the period 2013–2015 only 43% of discretionary measures will be carried out on the expenditure side of the budget. It seems that further expenditure cuts will be increasingly difficult and we can expect increasing tax burden in the near future. But still, given that there is no clear consensus about the optimal solution of the interlinked problem of low economic growth, government revenue, expenditure, and debt, the approach of the Czech government seems to be relatively appropriate.
