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Thomas Piketty: 'The Draghi report is a step in the right direction'

COLUMN. The report on competitiveness and the future of Europe submitted by the former ECB president has the advantage of challenging the dogma of budgetary austerity, writes the economist in his column.

If Europe proves incapable of making these investments, then the continent will enter a "slow agony" in the face of the United States and China, the report warns. This reflects a situation where there is a huge windfall of little-used or misused savings in Europe and worldwide, ready to pour into Western financial systems with virtually no yield. In such a situation, it is the role of public authorities to mobilize these sums and invest them in training, healthcare, research and new technologies, major energy and transport infrastructures, thermal renovation of buildings, and so on.

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