Why are serious people around the world talking about dropping money from the sky?
What would happen if money was falling from the sky like rain? Though this sounds like the tagline for a movie, Economist and Central Bankers around the world have recently been debating a similar idea called Helicopter Money. The idea of figuratively “dropping money from the sky, onto the economy” has been gaining ground as
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Why economic growth in the Netherlands has disappointed and is likely to continue to in the years to come.
Eight years have passed since the financial crisis of 2008 and many European countries, including the Netherlands, have only just surpassed their pre-crisis GDP level. The image of a waving line representing an economy going down and back up again in cycles is one of the most elementary concepts of economics; yet recent recovery has
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On the promise and real impact of the tech start-up’s financial sibling.
Financial technology is hot. Abbreviated to Fintech, it is the financial spinoff of the tech start-up and has been making waves across the world. Big banks and financial firms are channelling significant amounts of money into fintech. Even “nuchter” Holland has not escaped the hype: fintech is being actively supported by the Dutch government and
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Recently, an ex-teacher of the Faculty of Economics published an article criticizing the Bachelor of Economics at the UvA. What exactly was his critique and what should be done about it?
Discussions about what should be changed at the UvA are only as frequent as discussions on what should not be changed at the UvA. Everyone is by now familiar with last year’s protests at several faculties, yet at the construction site known as Roeterseiland things have been quiet. Is there less to complain about or
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Why the worries of 2016 remind some of 2008. And why this might be too pessimistic.
2016 has not had a fresh start. The year begun in the same way 2015 ended: the Chinese stock market plunged once again, as did the oil price. The Dutch stock exchange experienced the worst first week in its history; many others suffered heavy losses. There is a market belief that January predicts how
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How “Silicon Valley on the canals” is not just a hallucination.
Most people agree the weather in Amsterdam is nothing to be proud of. For technological start-ups however, the climate is a lot more welcome. Amsterdam currently ranks 19th in the Global Start-up Ecosystem Ranking: only the fourth European city on the list (together with Paris, London and Berlin) and surpassing cities like Barcelona, Brussels and Milan.
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That is the question on the mind of markets and economists, as the FED meets again on the 15th of December.
The 2015 Year Award for most Suspenseful Topic in Economics really just has one candidate: the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision. Last time the FED raised its benchmark interest rate no one had an iPhone, Obama was just a Senator and most of all, the financial crisis had not yet happened. But this year, as
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How the emerging economies are changing.
Until recently, the Eurozone has been the sick-child of the global economy. But as growth in the EU is finally gaining pace, that “honour” seems to be shifting to new candidates: the emerging economies. Emerging economies have been strong growing and promising markets for a long time, but this sentiment is quickly changing. Disappointing growth
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