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Essays

The Costs of Merkel’s Surrender to Hungarian and Polish Extortion

  • Project Syndicate
  • December 10, 2020
The European Union is facing an existential threat, and yet the EU’s leadership is responding with a compromise that appears to reflect a belief that the threat can simply be wished away. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s kleptocratic regime in Hungary and, to a lesser extent, the illiberal Law and Justice (PiS) government in Poland, are brazenly challenging the values on which the European Union has been built.

An Effective Response to Europe’s Fiscal Paralysis

  • Project Syndicate
  • November 30, 2020
I have written a lot in the past about the desirability of the European Union issuing perpetual bonds. But today I am proposing that individual member states should do so. Right now, it would be impossible for the EU to issue perpetual bonds, because the member states are too divided.

Europe Must Stand Up to Hungary and Poland

  • Project Syndicate
  • November 18, 2020
Hungary and Poland have vetoed the European Union’s proposed €1.15 trillion ($1.4 trillion) seven-year budget and the €750 billion European recovery fund. Although the two countries are the budget’s biggest beneficiaries, their governments are adamantly opposed to the rule-of-law conditionality that the EU has adopted at the behest of the European Parliament.

The Great Anticipator

  • Mario Calvo-Platero, La Repubblica
  • August 11, 2020
George Soros is one of the most iconic financiers of the century. He is the man who in 1992 “broke” the Bank of England, the philanthropist who has given away $32 billion to promote open societies, the political pugilist who has sparred with Donald Trump and Viktor Orban.

The Case For Perpetual Bonds

  • Widely Syndicated
  • May 9, 2020
Within a matter of weeks authorities will have to take decisions that will determine the fate of the European Union. The EU can either pull together and fulfill the expectations and aspirations of its citizens or it will continue to disintegrate.

Spain Is Leading the Way on Perpetual Bonds

  • April 22, 2020
When the European Council’s virtual summit convenes on April 23 to address how the European Union should cope with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, it should consider the Spanish government’s submission carefully. Indeed, it should be the first item on the meeting’s agenda.

The EU Should Issue Perpetual Bonds

  • April 20, 2020
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that Europe will need about €1 trillion ($1.1 trillion) to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. This money could be used to establish a European Recovery Fund. But where will the money come from?

Pandemic Requires Comprehensive Debt Standstills

  • Bloomberg Opinion
  • April 16, 2020
By: George Soros and Chris Canavan The Covid-19 pandemic is a one-two financial punch for developing economies. Not only has it put extraordinary pressure on the budgets of governments, which need to ramp up public health spending and prop up their reeling economies, but it has also caused a sharp exodus of capital from emerging markets.