New ideas from eight top economists
Creative after the crisis by Hans Wansink
Of this book, I only found a Dutch version.
In the preface to the Creative after the crisis book, Monika Sie Dhian Ho asks herself some questions from the beginning. “What kind of society are we actually striving for? Which economic order and government belong to this and what policy is leading us in that direction?”. There are preconditions imposed by the past that we cannot ignore: unemployment went up, financial crisis in 2008, precariousness, inequality…
In his booklet, the author tells the story of eight economists. Eight visions, which will last for a long time. Here are a few of their views:
- Thomas Piketty has the honor of having made a very important finding. The best indicator of the relative weight of capital in a country. That is the ratio between the total of capital and the national income (both from labor and from capital). He advocates the establishment of a European budget parliament that determines how quickly to pay off debts, and how much taxes should be levied. According to him, there is no other option for the Eurozone countries than to jointly restructure joint government debts.
- Martin Wolf is the world’s most influential financial journalist. He argues that the economic damage was greater than that of a world war. Also he argues that the financial elite lost its credit. This is because of its misconduct, but also because governments had to bail them out.
- Tyer Cowen argues that the days when you were fine as a resident of the Netherlands or France are over. He argues that there are still good jobs in the creative sector. While in the service sector it is not always good to have a job. But if you come from Mexico as an immigrant and go to work in the USA in the service sector, you have a good life. Mexicans are a blessing rather than a curse for the USA, according to him. According to him, you have to be really smart to take the fantastic opportunities that are out there. According to him, the problem of inequality is separate within each country. However the world as a whole is becoming more and more equal.
- Chrystia Freeland sees the challenges of maintaining prosperity and at the same time growing the world economy. That calls for smart government. She wonders where the politicians are with a vision of today’s challenges: economic stagnation and increasing inequality. The crafts of the future are jobs that you can’t do with machines.
- Ha-Joon Chang argues that people are too reticent when it comes to economics. Companies should invest more in the future instead of cutting costs. According to him, the experiment with the free market is at the root of the very high inequality in many economies. According to him, there is a need to increase productivity in the long term. As a result, they can reduce the national debt more quickly in the long run than by austerity. When asked about the sustainability of the eurozone, he replied that it would not be a problem if they limited it to a small number of countries. He mentions the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Austria, and France.
- Megan McArdle talks about “house gamblers as the cause of the 2008 crisis”. She believes the U.S. government could take a cue from Denmark’s approach. They couples fairly generous benefits with an extremely aggressive program of retraining. As a result, they keep the “people moving” there, which is a task of the government. However, people will have to do it themselves.
- Hans-Werner Sinn writes that Greece should go on Euroleave. He argues for a reintroduction of the Greek currency with associated devaluation, which would allow the country to pull itself out of the doldrums. Otherwise, they will continue to suffer from mass unemployment, which is a breeding ground for populist anti-European parties. He is also against a minimum wage in a situation of mass immigration. After all, the risk is that many immigrants will be unemployed immediately after entering.
- Europe, and to a lesser extent America and Canada, are seeing their lead turned into lagging behind. This cannot be stopped by the West. That is why Europe is increasingly benefiting from resilience. Furthermore, anyone who cannot participate in the rat race to the top, will have to renounce making a career. They must learn to ‘live broadly’ (after Albert Egberts, the anti-hero from “The Toothless Time”).
- Mariana Mazzucato talks about green investments, among other things. She talks about Apple that invests less and less in R&D. Apple that collects billions in profits but pays too little in taxes, according to her view. That more and more the government has to invest in R&D. As it did with touch screens, transitors, and a lot of parts that they use to make iPods, iPads, and iPhones, etc. According to her, green growth is about, among other things, reversing patterns of production and consumption. It is about energy conservation, multiplying the productivity of resources, creating new markets for special materials, renewable energy, sustainability of products, more personal services,…