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3821. Estonia and the European Debt Crisis

Author:
Juhan Parts
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Estonia has had a quick recovery from the recent recession and its economy is in better shape than before the crisis. It is now much leaner and significantly more capable of handling international shocks. After a sharp contraction, in which GDP contracted by over 14 percent in 2009, GDP growth rebounded quickly, growing at a rate of 3.1 percent in 2010 and 8.3 percent in 2011.
Political Geography:
Europe and Estonia

3822. The Welfare State as an Underlying Cause of Spain's Debt Crisis

Author:
Pedro Schwartz
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The ongoing crisis that so dramatically hit Spain in 2008 was at least in part caused by the countercyclical monetary policy the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank applied in the first years of the new century. Their artificially low interest rates must in part be responsible for the excessive leveraging in banks, businesses, and households. Their unwarranted use of monetary policy to foster growth has recoiled on them with a vengeance. Now central bankers and their political masters find that they cannot perform as expected. A constant feature of financial crises in the past two centuries, as Reinhart and Rogoff (2010) have noted, is that, when banks collapse, companies fail, and families go insolvent they all turn to the central bank and the government to bail them out. The authorities usually find it difficult to answer those anguished calls even when they have the power to print money, so that devaluations and write-offs ensue.
Political Geography:
Europe and Spain

3823. Market Failures, Government Solutions, and Moral Perceptions

Author:
J. R. Clark and Dwight R. Lee
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
It should be obvious to even the casual observer that both markets and governments fail—neither comes close to achieving perfection. Externalities, both positive and negative, are the most common explanation for market failures. The undersupply of public goods, for example, is seen as a market failure, and is the direct result of a positive externality being generated when a person contributes to a public good which, by definition, benefits others whether they contribute or not. Similarly, excess pollution is seen as a market failure resulting from the negative externality of people imposing uncompensated costs on others by emitting pollutants into the environment. But externalities are just as commonly the result of government activity as they are market activity. For example, many government transfers are best seen as negative externalities motivated by the desire of politically influential groups to benefit at the expense of others.

3824. Canada's Fiscal Reforms

Author:
Chris Edwards
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Two decades ago Canada suffered a deep recession and teetered on the brink of a debt crisis caused by rising government spending. The Wall Street Journal said that growing debt was making Canada an "honorary member of the third world" with the "northern peso" as its currency. However, Canada reversed course and cut government spending, balanced its budget, and enacted pro-market reforms. It reduced trade barriers, privatized businesses, and slashed its corporate tax rate. The economy boomed, unemployment plunged, and the formerly weak Canadian dollar soared to reach parity with the U.S. dollar. The Canadian reforms were hugely successful. Today, the United States is in as bad or worse fiscal shape than Canada was in. U.S. leaders need to make major fiscal and economic reforms, and they can learn many lessons from Canadian efforts to restrain government and create a more competitive economy.
Topic:
Reform
Political Geography:
United States and Canada

3825. Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget

Author:
Daniel J. Mitchell
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
If you want a primer on fiscal policy issues that gives you an establishment perspective, David Wessel's Red Ink should be your cup of tea. If you thought the 1990 budget deal was a good thing and if you want something similar today, you should read Red Ink to have your views reinforced.

3826. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Author:
Aaron Ross Powell
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The Righteous Mind offers a comprehensive and intriguing answer to that age-old political question, "Why do so many people disagree with me?" After all, I believe what I believe because I think the evidence and arguments are convincing. Otherwise, I wouldn't believe it. So why do others disagree?

3827. Curbing Campaign Cash: Henry Ford, Truman Newberry, and the Politics of Progressive Reform

Author:
John Samples
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
No one has yet written a detailed history of campaign finance regulation, even limited to the United States. In 1988, Robert E. Mutch published Campaigns, Congress, and Courts: The Making of Federal Campaign Finance Law. He then embarked on research seeking to fill out that story in the late 19th century. My own The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform combines public choice analysis with political theory in a way that historians might not recognize. Ray La Raja's excellent Small Change: Money, Political Parties, and Campaign Finance Reform Examines a larger historical tableau from a political science perspective. Paula Baker is apparently at work on a broader history of campaign finance and its regulation. This work began as a case study in that project and grew into a book. I look forward to the broader history, but I am happy to have this work.
Topic:
Reform
Political Geography:
Europe

3828. The Bankruptcy of Liberalism and Conservatism

Author:
Amitai Etzioni
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
AMITAI ETZIONI examines the frequently employed distinction between the public and the private realms. He concludes that this dichotomy as well as the one between liberalism and conservatism is becoming obsolete because both realms are increasingly intertwined and tend to move in tandem. Such observations urge reexaminations of several key assumptions of public philosophy.

3829. The Consequences of Forced State Failure in Iraq

Author:
Andrew Flibbert
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
ANDREW FLIBBERT discusses the Iraq war and its aftermath. He argues that most of the pathologies in Iraqi political life since 2003, from sectarian mobilization to insurgent violence, are best understood as consequences of forced state failure. He contends that the war should not be viewed as badly conducted so much as badly conceived, claiming that the same ideas that led to the war also determined the shape of the peace in subsequent years.
Political Geography:
Iraq

3830. Responses to Labor Market Challenges: Greece, Ireland, and Portugal, 1990–2008

Author:
Kate Nicholls
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
KATE NICHOLLS looks at policy responses to labor market challenges in Ireland, Portugal, and Greece between 1990 and 2008, focusing in particular on work-life balance, higher education, and immigration policies.
Political Geography:
Greece, Portugal, and Ireland