Professor Casper de Vries, holder of the Witteveen Chair of Monetary Economics at Erasmus School of Economics, participates in a panel discussion on BNR Nieuwsradio, Monday 27 May 2019. Together with Ester Barendregt (Head RaboResearch Netherlands) and Marieke Blom (Chief economist at ING), Professor De Vries discusses among other things the results of the European elections which revealed some unexpected outcomes.
As a scientist, Professor De Vries tends to look at the long run effects of the outcomes. The center parties have maintained their positions, but what does that mean for the European economy and the policy thereon? The European economy is performing reasonably well, says Professor De Vries. There are however still some problems, with Italy for example, and we still need to decide upon whether we want to realise a budgetary union. Now that the liberal parties have become a little stronger, we are more likely to work towards a capital market union. That is a good thing, according to Professor Casper de Vries.
Moreover, the plea of populist parties to leave the eurozone is just nonsense. They do not realise that we already have a system of flexible exchange rates and that the labour market, for example via wage adjustments, can be used as a correction mechanism. We already do that in the Netherlands, and every other country could do so as well. So it is time for the South to learn that too.
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Listen to the entire podcast on BNR Nieuwsradio, 27 May 2019