Issue 83 - 2012 spotlight image

Issue 83 - 2012

Stable public finances require stronger business investment

Stable public finances require stronger business investment

Simon Tilford
26 March 2012
Economic recovery in Europe is being held back by the unprecedented weakness of business investment. Despite a secular decline in business taxation and labour market reforms that have boosted the power of capital relative to labour, the ratio of investment-to-GDP across the EU is at a 60 year low. Rather...
A new political bargain in Afghanistan

A new political bargain in Afghanistan

Edward Burke
26 March 2012
Reports by official US agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office, make it crystal clear: the Afghan government is stealing money from the international community and from the Afghan people, on an alarming scale. US and European officials in Kabul are dismayed but seem paralysed: their response is to vow...
How to keep Britain in the EU

How to keep Britain in the EU

26 March 2012
At a time when some governments are pushing for a more integrated European Union, the British are becoming more eurosceptic. This contradiction increases the likelihood of Britain eventually leaving the EU – an outcome that, if current trends continue, is thoroughly plausible.
In the short term, Britain's decision in December to...
Bulletin
23 March 2012
Issue number 
83
Charles Grant, Simon Tilford, Edward Burke