Tag Archives: Equity

The Copenhagen Game

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The Big Ask is on: These days, the leaders of the world convene in Copenhagen for the 15th time to address that “greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen“: Climate Change.

Will they ward off that Tragedy of the Commons of our time? We don’t know.

They are playing games in Copenhagen. Not of the entertaining kind, but of the intricately interdependent kind.

The Green Paradox is one of those intricacies: are we reckoning without our fossil-fuel supplying hosts? What are their stakes?

Let’s get the rules straight. Then let’s see what we can do to improve our collective odds for a cooler planet.

And while we’re at it, let’s level out this playing field.

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The Perfect Tax

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Posted on
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Have you met the perfect tax?

The duty that is both elegant, and fair. The regime that lets our economies grow, and have everyone partake in its fruits. The excise that reconciles efficiency with equity. The set of rules that raises the revenue for a potent polity, and, at the same time, curbs wasteful decadence, to form that more perfect union.

If you haven’t met the perfect tax, let me introduce you: the postpaid progressive consumption tax.

The secret of the perfect tax? It burdens that behavior which is truly wasteful and undesirable: excessive consumption. It leaves all other economic activities unaffected.

Together with a negative income-tax for poor income earners and, possibly, a wealth tax to avoid boundless capital accumulation, it can replace all other redistributive taxes, both on individuals and corporations. Read on for more.

Children's coats, starting at $340. Via flickr, originally uploaded by permanently scatterbrained
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Setting the Goalposts Right

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What do we want from policy analysis?
This question recently came up in a discussion on new EU member state policy on poverty and social exclusion.
It’s not a simple question. And it depends an awful lot on what we accept as given.
In many discussions on EU enlargement and related social and tax policy reform, as in the broader context of liberalization, I think we too readily accept as inevitable a (mis)configuration of the international political economy which really is of our own choosing.
Let’s think this over. Read on for more.

Foggy Goalposts, originally uploaded by Boocal.

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Let’s spread the wealth around a little

Posted on
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Empty Bulgari Shop DisplayIt occurs to me, in the current economic crisis, and in public debt-ridden times to come, more than ever, discussions on public policy conclude in a shoulder-shrugging realization that we knew what to do about it. If only, we could afford to.

I’m getting tired of this resignation, be it in fighting climate change, in improving public education, or in helping out the weak, at home, and abroad.

I want a strong polity that can do these things. I want more, not less government. A better state.

How do we get there? We do what we used to be able to do: we reclaim our responsibility to channel the resources to the goods we collectively value the most.

We redistribute. It’s not a dirty word. It doesn’t hurt growth. It’s not socialism.

And no, it’s not impossible.

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Not enough state in “The State and the Financial Crisis”

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english

Panelists discussion the financial crisis. Photo credit: Hertie School of Governance

Panelists discussing the financial crisis. Photo credit: Hertie School of Governance

How to alleviate the effects of the financial crisis? And how to prevent it in the future? 

These questions are frequently debated and today were the subject of a high profile panel discussion on “The State and the Financial Crisis“, hosted at the Hertie School of Governnment, Berlin. Prof. Dr. Axel Weber, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank and member of the Governing Board of the European Central Bank started the event with a keynote looking into the dynamics, causes and future remedies of the financial and economic crisis. A high-ranking panel of experts from government, business and academia then discussed implications and solutions.

After a thoughtful debate on regulatory reform, I cannot help but wonder: Is that enough state for a discussion themed “The State and the Financial Crisis”?

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