*** KENNETH DYSON: States, Debt, & Power. 'Saints' & 'Sinners' in European History & Integration. Oxford University Press (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 556767 - fax: 241701 - Email: bookshop.uk@oup.com - Internet: http://www.oup.com ). 2014, 771 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-871407-1.
This is undoubtedly a book that should have been included in the list of presents given during the recent end of year festivities. But given that there will be many other occasions for offering it, perhaps it would serve us well to keep it in mind, especially if we want to keep a particular good friend in mind who is intellectually concerned about the sovereign debt crisis that unfurled in the Eurozone. This is a scientifically deep reaching examination of the problem of debt and its relations with political power, written by the political scientist Kenneth Dyson (Cardiff University), which, despite its remarkable detail, still manages to provide an excellent clarification of this issue. Anyone who has been asked to tackle and or comment on the enduring Eurozone crisis and the European Union as a whole, since 2007, would have done themselves a great favour if they had read this book and whose key focus is to tackle an issue that has affected us from "Ancient Greece to the euro area". This political scientist subsequently explains in his preface that, "the value of this approach lies in placing current debates about the sustainability of the euro area in an historical perspective". The lessons he learns from this question are numerous and undoubtedly serious food for thought; as Nietzsche points out, "when the past speaks, it always speaks as an oracle"
Looking at the past leads the author to observe that the governing elites seemed like sleepwalkers faced with the dangers of the debt, even before the crisis blew up, which is confirmed by generational accountancy researchers calculated that in 2012 Germany had an implicit public debt /GDP ratio of 147 per cent, mainly resulting from unfunded social security liabilities. The estimates were even worse for Belgium, France, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Will generalised large-scale austerity measures, however, change this? This is not at all certain because we do not have a European Social Stability Pact for the Eurozone and/or its member states so that the Eurozone can transform into an entrepreneurial and development undertaking. It is also clear that history shows that that debt only becomes something negative by those who decided it should be deemed as such. Combined with this situation are the "Anglo-centric views", which have largely set the scene since the 18th century and which have been victoriously relayed by the German liberal orders during the gestation period of the European Economic and Monetary Union, which rejected the idea of the state being a development factor in the foundations of European construction. Kenneth Dyson works on this overall canvas and contemporary scene and develops three central arguments: the first involves the centrality of creditor-debtor state relations for an understanding of the history of political rule in Europe, the limitations of formal economic reasoning about sovereign creditworthiness and sustainable debt. At the other end of the spectrum, the countries on the periphery find themselves increasingly at the mercy of lending countries, which is patently obvious when we look at the current situation in Greece. The second argument relates to the importance of the context in assessing sovereign debt and the current examination has led a number of important decision-makers to undermine the foundations of the welfare state, which we previously thought engraved in stone within the Union setup. The third argument involves the limitations of formal economic reasoning about sovereign creditworthiness and sustainable debt. The author points out that, "the relationship between debt and political rule remains pre-eminently a realm of subjective knowledge, conveyed by storytelling" and that consequently, a universal theory of optimum debt is nothing but an illusion.
A number of ideas can be drawn from the preface alone. The ideas are obviously much more numerous, with detailed and meticulous analyses, in the body of the book, which is divided into four sections. In the first part, Kenneth Dyson examines a number of concrete cases that have occurred throughout history since Ancient Greece and he subsequently brings together a wealth of historical data that casts fresh light on how sovereign debt problems are debated and addressed. The second part of the book examines the conditioning and constraining framework of law, culture, and ideology and their relationship to the use of policy instruments. In the third section, the author shows how the problems of matching the assumption of liability with the exercise of control are rooted in external trade and financial imbalance and external debt, in financial markets and vulnerability to banking crisis, the 'private governance of public debt', in domestic institutional and political arrangements and in subnational fiscal governance. To conclude, Professor Dyson focuses on how the problems of mismatch between liability and control take on an acute form within the historical context of European monetary union, above all in Euro Area debt crisis
This remarkable work contains and epilogue worthy of a number of different reviews in these European Library pages and in the editorial of our daily newsletter. Professor Dyson is particularly keen on learning the lessons of history and the lessons from this particular crisis indicate that, "history makes clear that the euro is fundamentally a political project". No one has been able to hide this fact and the author even goes as far as stating that this also applies to the European integration project itself as begun by Monnet and Schuman, with the extensive single market never being simply an end in itself. Another solution put forward by the author to save the euro zone and the European project as a whole includes the need "to re-establish political democracy and accountability at the EU level, where relevant decisions can be made about economic policy coordination, fiscal rules, and structural reform priorities". All this goes without saying but there will obviously be a number of ideas in particular to seriously ponder because they actually come from a British citizen who takes to task the populist dogmas currently prevailing on the other side of the Channel.
Michel Theys
*** IVO MAES, FRANK MOSS (Editors): Progress through Crisis? Proceedings of the Conference for the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of the European Monetary Institute. Banque centrale européenne (Postfach 160319, D-60066 Frankfurt am Main. Tel: (49-69) 13440 - Internet: http://www.ecb.europa.eu ). 2014, 164 p. ISBN 978-92-899-1397-3.
This book provides an account of the conference organised by the European Central Bank and the National Bank of Belgium to celebrate, February last year, the 20th anniversary of the launch of the European Monetary Institute and pay tribute to Alexandre Lamfalussy, its first president. Its main thrust tackles the question of whether lessons can be learnt for the future, from the turbulent 1990s and its spate of monetary storms, exchange rate turbulence and spiralling interest rates. It also looks at the action taken by the European Monetary Institute, which, despite everything, managed to keep a straight course and lead the European Economic and Monetary Union through the crisis. In his introduction, Luc Coene, the European Monetary Institute's first president and governor of the National Bank of Belgium, points out that the sovereign debt crises began in October 2009 have subsequently confirmed that, "much stronger integration of economic policy is absolutely vital". This is something that Alexandre Lamfalussy was convinced of from the very beginning and who appealed in vain for the Delors Report to push for the idea of creating a Centre for Economic Policy Coordination. This point of view was shared by Thomas Wieser and Wim Haine, who made a robust appeal for, "a move towards some degree of fiscal federalism". Jean-Claude Trichet even saw the European Commission as the future "democratic government" of the Union. This idea is extremely important, although Mario Draghi does not appear to pass the message on in his capacity as the current governor of the European Central Bank but does he, perhaps, think differently? (MT)
*** KONRAD RACZKOWSKI, LUKASZ SULKOWSKI (Editors): Tax Management and Tax Evasion. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "New Horizons in Management Sciences", No. 4. 2014, 245 pp. €57.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65190-2.
In these times of LuxLeaks, this monograph comes at just the right time. Is the fiscal optimisation sought by many companies really fiscal optimisation? Does it not in many different cases lead to tax evasion and ultimately illegal practices? How can the tax authorities tackle tax fraud on a mass scale when the victims are the national tax budgets and it is being played out in the arena of indirect taxation, particularly VAT? From the point of view of entrepreneurs, how can they avoid being swept up in a tax merry-go-round that is likely to lead to action against them in the courts? Above all how can a state deal with fair tax competition and make its economy safe by introducing a tax management system that is both efficient and appropriate? 17 different experts attempt to provide their answers to these fundamental questions in this publication. Their responses focus on the European Union, particularly Poland. The European Union because it is undoubtedly, as the editors point out, the fact that tax problems have much greater importance for countries that share a common market. Poland, because the majority of the writers to this contribution work in this country and the fact that the economic growth that has developed over recent years there has nothing to do with tax receipts, quite the contrary.
(MT)
*** DIMITRIOS KONSTADAKOPULOS: From pax ottomanica to pax europaea. The growth and decline of a Greek village's micro-economy. Peter Lang (see address attached). « Byzantine and Neohellenic Studies » series, No. 11. 2014, 359 pp. €70.90. ISBN 978-3-0343-1749-8.
This book provides a multidisciplinary examination based on the micro economic history of the mountain village of Tsamantas, in the North East of Greece, which has experienced major socio-economic changes over the course of the last century. Its author is head of department at the Cardiff School of Management and the Cardiff Metropolitan University. He has spent 12 years analysing this community, as well as its diaspora in the US, Australia and elsewhere. The conviction underpinning his work is based on the complex and rich history of a specific community that can possibly hold a number of keys for understanding the economic, political and social transformations taking place elsewhere in southern Eastern Europe over the past hundred years. During this time, the region's macro economic development was deeply affected by major historic events, namely liberation from the Ottoman Empire, civil wars, the birth of new nations, the two world wars, the recent globalisation process and European integration. Located in one of the most remote regions of the Epirus (the mountain region of the Balkans, between Greece and Albania), Tsamantas could provide a theoretical example of how decision-making within a community can influence the success or failure of the local economy. The analysis is divided into two parts. In the first, the author examines the socio-economic history of this village community during the first half of the 20th century and then goes on to describe and encode, in the second part of the century, the changes that have occurred there and more further afield in this region of Europe, since the wars of the 1940s.
(CDe)
*** Commission en direct. Commission européenne (Communications Unit, DG HR. Tel: (32-2) 2991111 - fax: 2999285). September 2014, 64 pp.
This issue of an internal European Commission publication contains a major article on reformed cohesion policy and what this implies for the regions and cities of Europe. This mainly takes shape in a number of interviews with former Commissioner Johannes Hahn (who is now in charge of neighbourhood policy in the Juncker Commission, after having headed regional policy under the Barroso Commission) and Commissioner László Andor, formerly in charge of employment and social affairs. Other articles shed light on the new priorities and innovation, such as the partnership agreements concluded with member states and the 300 or so national, regional and territorial investment programmes that are about to be implemented.
(PBo)
*** ANDRZEJ K. KOZMINSKI, DARIUSZ JEMIELNIAK (editors): The New Principles of Management. Peter Lang (see address attached a). « Kozminski Studies in Management and economics” series, No. 1. 2013, 364 pp. €64.95. ISBN 978-3-631-64252-8.
Put together by a number of researchers working at the University of Kozminski in Poland, this publication is intended by its authors for students as an introduction to management principles, which according to the former, will become more important than ever in the 21st-century as a factor in determining one's professional success. It provides a more practical than theoretical approach on the subject than other books and seeks to familiarise readers with strategic management principles and the most important terminology, key concepts, rules and theories used by contemporary managers. It is based on international case studies and examples of good corporate management gathered throughout Central and Eastern Europe, which also differentiates it from books published on the subject in Poland, which are often translations of US publications. The authors subsequently seek to encourage ownership of the notions of management that must be mastered by all those who want to work in commercial or non-commercial company management positions. The book contains 14 chapters and courses, with each of them providing a theoretical introduction and selection of management subjects that are backed up by data, exercises and examples about subjects that create debate and ideas for personal reflection.
(Cde)