Business | Vocal Europe

Both political and corporate health scares are irresponsible

02/01/2018 Business

[authorbox authorid="46" title="The Author"] A functional market economy requires informed consumers, who a sufficiently informed about the products and services that they consume. Despite there being difficulties to achieve an absolutely transparent market, suffice it…

A Post-Brexit Silicon Britain? Why Not!

12/12/2017 Business

Richard Mason

[dropcap size=small]W e have had a lot of doom and gloom this year. London-based banks worrying us with talk of moving to Frankfurt, uncertainty on migration to and from the continent; for a while,…

The Döner debate is emblematic for the need for evidence-based policy-making

08/12/2017 Business

Bill Wirtz

I n a recent move by Social Democrats and Greens in the European Parliament, there has been a call to phase-out the use of phosphate in the fast-food product döner kebab. This was, at…

Bus market liberalisation: the European Commission gets it right

24/11/2017 Business

Bill Wirtz

[authorbox authorid="46" ] [dropcap size=small]T he European Union's Commission laid out a proposal for the liberalisation of the European inter-city bus market. As a part of the second phase of the Commission's mobility pack, Brussels…

The European anti-trade sentiment: a fallacy, not a fact

18/11/2017 Business

Vocal Europe

T oday being pro-trade and defending globalisation seem to be out of fashion. After Trump crushed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), and put the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) under his hammer, it does seem…

The German word for ‘debt’ also means ‘guilt’

15/11/2017 Business

Bill Wirtz

[dropcap size=small]W hat do the numbers 2 trillion, 2.1 trillion, 326 billion and 388 billion all have in common? That’s right, they’re all the total numbers of debt of European countries, namely (and in…

President Macron, politics and a realistic approach to the future of the Euro

30/10/2017 Business

Vocal Europe

P resident Macron in his sweeping vision of the Future of Europe (delivered on the 26th of September) correctly identifies the centrality of the Euro to the long term economic power of Europe. Through…

The Sub-Saharan Challenge for Europe

17/10/2017 Business

Stefcho Stanev

[dropcap size=small]AT a press conference during the last G20 summit, Emmanuel Macron said, as a response to question about Africa’s development problems, that even if you spend billions of euros, you will not be…

Initial Coin Offerings exploded but they are still striving to get approval by market regulators

06/10/2017 Business

Ilaria Capitabio

T ogether with the boom of the Initial Public Offerings (IPO) at the end of the 1990s, the presentation of the Bitcoin White Paper in 2008 and the activation of the blockchain-based Ethereum Platform…

Georgia’s New Plain Packaging Rules: How We Bully Countries into Bad Laws

02/10/2017 Business

Bill Wirtz

[authorbox authorid="46" ] T he Republic of Georgia parachuted into law a plan mandating plain packaging for all tobacco products. As of now, only Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France make it compulsory for…