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Think Tank News

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European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) and Republikon Institute (Hungary) have pleasure to invite to a conference “Liberal Opportunities in East Central Europe. Chances of a Liberal Comeback“   WHEN: June 4, 2012, 10:30 a.m. WHERE: A38 ship (Petőfi bridge, Buda side) Budapest Working language: English and Hungarian Registration: republikon@republikon.hu PROGRAMME 10:30-    Registration   11:00-11:05 Welcome                                                                                                                                                                   Csaba Tóth, director of strategy, Republikon Institute   11:05-11:40 Key-note Speech:  Liberalism in Europe and in the East…

Economy

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About the Greeks beating German-looking pensioners and Greek members of parliament playing black metal, while Merkel is happy to gamble with their lives. About fiscal pact, which is good in one country and bad in another one, about reducing debt with the help of magic and about American budgetary hockey game, which ended 99:0. After  3 000 years Greeks have improved the art of drama to the level of perfection. After practically nobody happened to agree…

Economy

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As finance ministers sat together at the Ecofin meeting last week, the future of the Eurozone was at stake, with Greek political deadlock casting a shadow of darkness over its own euro existence. Greek President Karolos Papoulias was going to ask politicians last Tuesday to stand aside and let a technocratic government be formed to avoid bankruptcy of the heavily indebted Balkan country even though radical leftists from Syriza party have already rejected the proposal…

Think Tank News

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In April we continued working actively on the issues of higher education. The Parliament passed amendments to the Law on Science and Studies, incorporating our recommendations submitted in March. Among them is the provision enshrined in the law that well-learning students “shall be granted” studentships (the original wording of the bill was “may be granted” studentships). We understand that there is still a number of pressing issues to be solved as regards the higher education…

Economy

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In recent years, the Baltic States have been showcased as an austerity success story. While the whole world has seen countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal struggling to reduce their public spending, Lithuania has been hailed as an austerity example. Lithuanian success in public spending cuts has been widely acknowledged; yet simultaneous tax increases and their harmful effects have received less attention. Since the end of 2011, however, the country once again found itself…

Think Tank News

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On April 19 – 22 2012 INESS organized its flagship educational event – third annual Seminar on Austrian economics in Piestany, Slovakia. Its aim is to fill the gap in university education with specialization in economics, to improve teaching economics in Slovakia and to provide with alternatives to the current educational system. The seminar is also to help students deal with the current economic issues through intensive discussions with interesting local and foreign lecturers. The…

Economy, Politics

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Voters decided if they still want to live on others‘ money. Savings or growth? A false dilemma with irresistible sex appeal to politicians. The Golden Dawn in Greece. Why Hugh Hendry is concerned about his assets in Europe? In Spain thr nationalization of banks‘ debts is launched – will they manage to break record annual deficit of Ireland (32% of GDP)? French and Greeks were voting during the weekend. Results of both elections will lead to…

Economy

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As Wen Jiabao walks into the press conference room, lights focus on him and the applause accompanies his steps. Then, with his voice slightly cracking he said: “Journalist friends, this will be my last National People’s Congress press conference“. Wen Jiabao is the sixth serving prime minister of the People’s republic of China and ranks third out of a nine member Politburo of the Communist Party of China, the real power organ of the world’s…

Economy

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In most recent years a famous graph, showing how deep the recession is in the UK and what is the path of recovery, appeared periodically. The graph is made by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and compares the profile of the worst recessions in the UK over the past 100 years. The graph clearly shows that the last economic decline from 2008 is the longest of all compared episodes and that…