Leaving the Crisis Behind

The ongoing crisis, enveloping in particular the European finance system, is in danger of becoming embedded. Reticent productive investment due to underutilisation and grave uncertainties, budget cuts everywhere, including education and research, growing resistance to reform, a prevalence of precarious employment among the young, including skilled ones, and the after-effects of such employment on their old age provision – all these combine with the impact that accelerated demographic ageing has on the social system and on endeavours to consolidate the high public debt. Greater growth dynamism might overcome the retarding forces. But how do we get there?