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Forum

European Integration and National Elections After COVID-19

The United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union and the COVID-19 crisis are offering a window of opportunity for a deeper fiscal union and further European integration in various policy areas including foreign affairs and defence, tax harmonisation and climate change. While this debate goes far beyond national boundaries, the voters who cast their ballots are still as national as ever. When the EU emerges from the pandemic, the political landscape in different member states is likely to become even more crucial for further steps towards European integration. In this context, the recent elections in the Netherlands, the latest government crisis in Italy and the upcoming national elections in Germany, France and Hungary might show whether that window of opportunity remains.

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Letter from America

American Rescue Plan

US Congress recently passed the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that includes a top up of the previous stimulus payments to individuals earning less than $75,000 to $2,000 each. This is deficit spending of roughly 14% of GDP to be paid out in 2021. There will almost certainly be overheating and a historic boom in US GDP growth, writes Adam S. Posen. But what does that overheating actually mean?

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The Covid-19 Response

The Economics of the Coronavirus Crisis

Intereconomics will be publishing all coronavirus crisis related articles online first in order to provide our readers up-to-date information as this unprecedented situation continues to unfold.

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foreign direct investment

COVID-19 and China’s Investments in Germany

Xinming Xia and Wan-Hsin Liu show that the COVID-19 pandemic has had some negative but rather temporary effects on Chinese investments in Germany. With its clear strength in high-tech, smart manufacturing and innovation activities, Germany is expected to stay attractive to Chinese investors who seek to gain access to advanced technologies and know-how in the future.

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Editorial

Taxing Multinationals

For too long, international institutions have failed to deal with one of the most toxic aspects of globalisation: tax avoidance by multinational corporations. Tommaso Faccio and Jayati Ghosh argue that this has taken away a tool to achieve equality and distributive justice and thereby diminished citizens’ trust in the social contract.

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Forum

The EU Elephant: Europe in the 2021 Dutch Elections

The Netherlands held general elections in March 2021, the first in a series of national elections in EU member states that could determine the course of the European Union for years to come. Simon Otjes provides insight into the Dutch political system, its players and the implications of the election results for the Netherlands and the EU as a whole.

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Figure of the Month

Image of the EU in Hungary

Supply linkages

The figure from Borbála Göncz and György Lengyel’s Forum article Europhile Public vs Eurosceptic Governing Elite in Hungary? shows that 46% of Hungarians had a positive image of the EU in 2004 as opposed to 24% in 2012; most recently, positive perceptions climbed up to 49% in 2020.