January 24, 2018

How to Develop Secondary Markets for Non-performing Loans?

The ECB seeks to increase trading in non-performing loans by reducing the pricing gap between prospective investors and banks. For this to happen, there need to be structural reforms aimed at reducing recovery times, as well as better access to information about loans and debtors. Only when the price offered by investors is in line with the price demanded by banks will we see more activity in distressed debt markets.
December 1, 2017

Credit Day: Debt and Deficit in a Bipolar EU

6 December marks Credit Day across the European Union. This is the day when, on average, European countries’ central administrations will exhaust their annual tax revenue and start living on credit to meet their spending commitments, according to a study by the Institut Economique Molinari.
November 7, 2017

The Day European Union Governments Spent the Last of Their Annual Revenues

EU central governments use up their resources December 6 on average, 25 days before the end of the year. This is almost seven days later than the year before, representing a significant improvement.
March 1, 2014

Sin Taxes: the Examples of Alcohol and Tobacco

So‐called “sin” taxes are very much in fashion in France and elsewhere. With the aim of reducing “sinful” behaviour and financing the health care system, public authorities are planning to raise the tax load on alcohol and tobacco even higher.
March 1, 2014

The Government Debt Iceberg

Western governments have developed unfunded social insurance programmes where retiree benefits are paid for from the taxes of the working-age population. This means that an ageing population leads to 
rising expenditures that cannot be covered without increasing taxes on the young.
January 1, 2014

Income From Work – The Fourth Pillar of Income Provision in Old Age

The benefits of increasing labour participation rates in old age flow both to the individual – in terms of improved health and increased incomes – and to society as a whole as greater employment at older ages will reduce the costs of ageing populations.
May 1, 2013

The Proof of the Pudding: Denmark’s Fat Tax Fiasco

Denmark’s fat tax remains the leading example of an ambitious anti-obesity policy being tested in the real world. The results failed to match the predictions of computer models and the failed experiment has since been largely swept under the carpet in public health circles.
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