Lynne Kiesling
With apologies to my colleague Mark Witte for plagiarizing him … we were discussing how the EU has had to suspend their carbon emission permit trading system (I wouldn’t dignify it by calling it a market) due to online security breaches and the theft of millions of Euros worth of permits. Mark asked if there was any aspect of economics that the EU didn’t screw up, which prompted us to come up with the following list:
- Emissions permit markets, common currency, agriculture, unions, employment protection, immigration, consumer product regulation, competition policy
Seriously, what aspect of economics has the EU not screwed up?
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The lust is even longer, unfortunately.
The EU has managed to deplete the seas of fish through its fishery policy (http://www.civitas.org.uk/wordpress/2011/01/21/plenty-more-fish-in-the-sea/ ) and has taken the “voluntary” out if the voluntary sector by offering state subsidies to green groups (http://www.policynetwork.net/accountability/publication/friends-eu ) and supposedly “non-governmental” organisations. It also failed to promote international trade as a solution to poverty despite the billion of euros spent on the international development budget EuropeAid.
The roads? 🙂
1) cell phones cannot be bundled with contracts in many EU countries
2) Low or zero transaction costs for bank transfers/ATM withdrawals
3) The 2€ coin
4) Ironically, monthly banking fees and fewer credit cards reduces people’s “banking reach”
5) The Euro — in terms of price discovery and travel convenience.
6) Water pricing
7) Health care (in the NL, for sure)
8) Need more?