The Sound of Economics

It has been 60 years since the foundation of the Élysée Treaty, which was signed on the 22 January 1963. The treaty aimed to create close bilateral collaboration between France and Germany, to help reconcile past conflicts between the two countries and to allow them to emerge as one of the ‘engines’ of European integration. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of Bruegel’s concept as a Think Tank. The concept was developed jointly by Nicolas Véron and Jean Pisani-Ferry in 2003. The idea was later endorsed by French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who jointly declared that to help “contribute to international debates on economic, financial and trade policy, France and Germany have decided to launch a European initiative for the creation of a centre for the international economy devoted to those subjects. In this episode of The Sound of the Economics, Nicolas Véron and Jean Pisani-Ferry, two Frenchmen and founders of Bruegel, invite their German colleague, Cornelia Woll, President of the Hertie School, to revisit Franco-German relations from the signing of the Élysée Treaty, discussing the importance of those relations in European integration and how to redefine them in a modern context.

While China’s property market has been a key driver of its economy, concerns around the sustainability of the sector have circulated for many years. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia Garcia-Herrero invite Yunpeng Zhang, Lecturer and Assistant Professor from University College Dublin, to discuss the country’s urban development, the misalignments of interests between local and central government and its impact on China’s economy as well as the society. This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox! 

For the first time in over ten years, the euro area has a new member. Croatia is the latest country to join the monetary union, starting 1 January 2023. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Jeromin Zettelmeyer sits down with Boris Vujčić, Governor of the Croatian National Bank, to discuss the implications of Croatia’s accession, the challenges they faced during the process, and the advantages they gain by now being a part of the monetary union. As the person shepherding Croatia’s accession into the euro area, Boris Vujčić will discuss the impact euro membership will have on Croatia and give his thoughts on the past, present and future of the euro.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed the course of the year 2022. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Maria Demertzis, André Sapir and Jeromin Zettelmeyer to unfold the impact of the war, energy crisis and inflation, European responses to these incidents, continued confrontations on the global stage and their implications on the world. Following Bruegel’s end-of-year tradition, the guests also each introduce a book, movie or TV series that resonated with them in 2022.  Publications mentioned in the podcast:  National fiscal policy responses to the energy crisis, Dataset by Giovanni Sgaravatti, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann  The European Commission's fiscal rules proposal: a bold plan with flaws that can be fixed, Blog by Olivier Blanchard, André Sapir and Jeromin Zettelmeyer  Is the EU fiscal rules reform going in the right direction? Podcast with Grégory Claeys, Zsolt Darvas, Maria Demertzis and Jeromin Zettelmeyer  Rewriting the rulebook of the EU fiscal framework, Event with Carlos Cuerpo, Karolina Ekholm, Vitor Gaspar, Alenka Jerkič, Maarten Verwey and Jeromin Zettelmeyer  Santa’s book/movie/series list Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK, book by Simon Kuper How to Be Animal, A new history of what it means to be human, book by Melanie Challenger Nights of Plague, book by Orhan Pamuk  The Brexit effect: how leaving the EU hit the UK, FT Film The Swimmers, film directed by Sally El Hosaini  This England, TV series directed by Michael Winterbottom, Julian Jarrold, Anthony Wilcox and Mat Whitecross Enjoy a selection of highlighted podcasts and publications to keep you informed over the winter break. We wish you a lovely holiday season and look forward to bringing you more economic analysis in the upcoming year.

ChatGPT is the latest example of technology that appears to be able to execute tasks that would have required the services of high level academics not too long ago. Similar AI initiatives are taking place across the world, which begs the question: is automation coming for knowledge work next? In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Maria Savona, Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Economics at LUISS University, Rome and Professor of Economics of innovation at SPRU, Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, UK, and David Autor, Ford Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, to discuss different perspectives and lessons from the US and Europe on the design of digital automation technologies and their implications for the future of work. This podcast was produced within the project "Transatlantic expert group on the future of work", with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Bruegel, AISBL and The German Marshall Fund of the United States and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

India has recently surpassed the United Kingdom to become the fifth largest economy in the world, standing directly behind the US, China, Japan and Germany. As its GDP growth is estimated to be between 8% to 10.5%, India is certainly rising into the ranks of stable economic growth like China succeeded to do in the 1990s. But what do these two countries have in common, and what do their bilateral relations mean for the rest of the world? In this podcast, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Alicia García-Herrero, Senior fellow at Bruegel and Jagannath Panda, Head of the Stockholm Centre for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs, to discuss the growing importance of China-India relations, and why they matter for Europe and the rest of the world. This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox! 

95 percent of the world economy (measured by GDP) is exploring the idea of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and many countries including Nigeria and China are entering into the close-to-launch or fully launched phase. But what is the hype about? In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Maria Demertzis invites Grégory Claeys and Josh Lipsky to discuss the purpose of having a CBDC from both a retail and a wholesale perspective. Particularly, they raise the geopolitical importance of CBDCs, with the example of the G7’s financial sanctions against Russia that ruled out several Russian banks from the SWIFT system and froze Russian Foreign Exchange Reserves. However, if CBDCs are largely implemented, whilst they could help the EU achieve more autonomy in international finance, they could also be used by countries to bypass western sanctions and challenge the dollar hegemony in the current international financial system. 

Authoritarianism is becoming increasingly normalised in the 21st century. As anti-democratic movements take root globally in a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic groups, democracy is constantly under threat. In many countries, democratically elected autocratic movements threaten to erode the foundations of the systems they work within, aiming to sow division while offering no real change. Will this be the final retreat of global democracy? In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Pranab Bardhan who is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and Heather Grabbe who is a senior adviser to the Open Society Foundations, to discuss democratic backsliding in the world, its economic underpinnings and what can be done to combat these challenges. 

 In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live, Giuseppe Porcaro invites John Murton, Johanna Nyman and Simone Tagliapietra look at what was said and decided at this year's COP27 in Egypt. What are the preliminary impressions? Are we delivering on the Paris Agreement and how efficient is COP in getting there? They discuss these and more questions while unpacking the meeting.  

On 9 November, the European Commission presented its long-awaited proposal for a reformed EU economic governance framework. The proposal intends to focus on medium-term risks to debt sustainability and to allow flexibility to boost growth and investments and move away from yearly micro-management of unobservable public finance variables. Maria Demertzis invites Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Grégory Claeys and Zsolt Darvas to share their views on the reform proposal.