public finances

Tomio Okamura, the Czech Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, made a New Year\'s speech which is a prime example of economic populism that pretends to be \"common sense\" but is actually based on systematic simplification, confusion of terms, and false dilemmas. Underneath the appealing language of optimism and concern for \"ordinary people\" lies a set of claims that deny known facts, ignore the government\'s policy statement, and distort reality.

Slovakia has managed to muster a constitutional majority passing a bill that would have a detrimental effect on the stability of the Slovak public finances in the long run. The measure is the constitutional limit of the retirement age now set at 64 for men and 63 for women (with two kids).

Roma people are often referred to as the abusers of social system who create a significant burden on public finance. As a consequence, limiting social benefits to Roma is often proposed by many as a solution for public deficits.

In Spain, the government-established expert group recommended a reduction of the corporate tax by 10%.

Nomura believes that this real estate bubble, followed by potential property market correction, could lead to a systemic crisis, and is the biggest risk which China faces in 2014.

If privatisation is indeed to work its magic and liberate markets from politicians, predictable mistakes should be avoided. Thinking about privatisation failure can improve privatisation itself.

This revolution has not been hampered by the economic crisis. It is going on. This year alone seven countries are going to reduce the profit tax.

Paradoxically, the Slovak remake of the clip received more views in two days than official European Commission video in 6 months.

Index of Economic Freedom was released last week. Slovakia ranked 57th - 15 places down from previous year.

The Bitcoin barrage certainly towers prominently among the 2013 phenomena.