“ECONOMISTS POINT TO EMERGING DRAGHINOMICS” (September 8, 2014)

Thus The Financial Times today. “Policy mix signals important evolution of thinking,” explains the newspaper. As it turns out, Draghinomics consists of simultaneous cut in the prime rate of interest, which is already well below the inflation rate, and a mild form of quantitative easing. The term comes from Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics from New York University who is famous for foreseeing the global economic crisis six years ago. Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, is also looking for ways for the eurozone governments to increase spending. For better or worse, though, fiscal policy is out of his hands. That is where he is getting ever closer to Jean-Claude Juncker, the incoming president of the European Commission, who is preparing a sizable investment program for the European Union. It remains to be seen whether the Commission can pull it off, for it is far from being the Union’s government, but it would indeed signal a momentous change in European economic thinking. Pace Roubini, but bringing together Draghinomics and Junckernomics would be the only trick that could help the subcontinent out of the doldrums. Fingers crossed.