Economic Problems of Our Time

In this paper, we aim to look at the main problems which arose or aggravated in recent years, concerning the economic crisis, stagnation, inequalities, and globalisation, what we call ‘the terrible four’. These are partly old problems (and we trace them back in economic history), but they have become more profound in the last decades. Notwithstanding the fantasy of economists that has led to suggest the possibility to make use of new instruments of economic policy, some of them are politically constrained, which implies the impossibility for the Government to reach its economic policy targets. In fact, if the number of instruments is less than that of targets, the Government becomes a ‘lame duck’.

A number of policy issues have emerged recently, while some of the traditional instruments are barred or unavailable, which makes it impossible to reach these policy targets.