Niedrigzinspolitik und Quantitative Easing der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) unter Beachtung europäischer Staatsverschuldung

In the article the following 2 theses are examined fact-based: 1. „Many countries have a so high public debt that a return to a higher leading interest of the European Central Bank (ECB) is not possible any more.“ 2. „If it comes to a clear interest increase, heavy real-economic frictions or even the insolvency of various countries can be prevented only by a partial debt relief.“ In the analysis are shown the magnitude of the low interest rate policy and the quantitative Easing (QE) of the European Central Bank (ECB) on the one hand, and on the other hand the public debt as well as the interest to be paid on that debt resulting from higher interest rates are examined for selected member countries of the EEMU (France, Germany, Italy Spain). As a consequence it appears that with a lasting reincrease of the level of interest rates (by increasing the leading interest rate of the ECB) and/or an end of the loan purchase programme within the scope of the QE for many states of the EWWU the ability in the debt service will not be possible any more. High budget deficits would lead to heavy economic frictions. Summarizing for the economic and political stability of many states: An exit from low interest rate policy and QE will be only possible – if there is an ongoing lack of alternatively sustained reforms in economic and financial policy –if it comes to a sustained debt relief in the EEMU

Employer-Based Insurance: Coverage and Cost

Explores the variation in cost by employers and enrollees, types of employers that offer coverage, access to coverage by workers, and how costs would change, especially for small businesses, if new policies required coverage for all full-time workers

A fast and efficient algorithm to compute BPX- and overlapping preconditioner for adaptive 3D-FEM

In this paper we consider the well-known BPX-preconditioner in conjunction with adaptive FEM. We present an algorithm which enables us to compute the preconditioner with optimal complexity by a total of only O(DoF) additional memory. Furthermore, we show how to combine the BPX-preconditioner with an overlapping Additive-Schwarz-preconditioner to obtain a preconditioner for finite element spaces with arbitrary polynomial degree distributions. Numerical examples illustrate the efficiency of the algorithms

Debt relief for the EMU Countries: a Chance to Restore Europe’s Power and to Stabilize the Euro

Government spending on bailing out banks and financing a variety of stimulus packages following the US real estate and financial crisis led to a sharp increase in the already very high level of public debt also of the member countries of the European Monetary Union (EMU). Countries such as Greece, Italy, Belgium, France and even Germany in particular depend on very low or at least low interest rates to stabilize their financial situation. Thus, the central reason for the European Central Bank's low interest rate policy, which has been in place for almost 10 years, is to provide the highly indebted countries of the EMU with a significant reduction in the interest burden in favor of a solution to the debt problem: giving time for a lot of necessary reforms to increase economic development. But none of this has succeeded in the last 10 years. Instead, the budgetary situation in the euro countries is getting worse, the disparities in economic development are increasing rather than diminishing, thereby endangering the stability of the euro and thus the future of the single currency. There is an urgent need for sustained higher net investments in nearly all sectors of all countries from Greece to Germany: instead, net investment in the countries of the EMU is clearly decreasing and Europe is in danger of being left behind not only by the two economic powers USA and China. This outlines a problem that is as pressing as it is topical: the question of how to restore Europes’ economic power. The key lies in the question of how can we be able to solve the crippling debt problem of European countries quickly and sustainably. The answer given by the discussion paper is a kind of debt relief, implemented as a conversion of a relevant amount of the government bonds held by the ECB. Conversion means extending the repayment to 80-100 years and the interest rate to be set very low. Of course a binding agreement is inevitable that net new debt can only be taken up to the maximum value of the GDP growth of a certain period. Only countries can participate in the debt conversion which commit themselves to making higher net investments to be specified more precisely, to carry out reforms especially concerning the efficiency of taxation, respectively set lower and upper limits for some taxes of the central government, and harmonize them within narrow ranges. Also it is necessary to reasonably reduce and largely deregulate bureaucracy and put an end to shadow economy and corruption. By regaining financial strength as a result of a debt conversion, which is only possible within a strong supranational framework, the advantages of membership in the European Monetary Union will once again become evident, and the European Union can again become a shining example of freedom and prosperity, the way that Robert Schuman did formulate as a vision in the declaration of May 9, 1950

Three Large-Scale Changes To The Medicare Program Could Curb Its Costs But Also Reduce Enrollment

With Medicare spending projected to increase to 24 percent of all federal spending and to equal 6 percent of the gross domestic product by 2037, policy makers are again considering ways to curb the program's spending growth. We used a microsimulation approach to estimate three scenarios: imposing a means-tested premium for Part A hospitalinsurance, introducing a premium support credit to purchase health insurance, and increasing the eligibility age to sixty-seven.We found thatthe scenarios would lead to reductions in cumulative Medicare spending in 2012 -- 36 of 2.4 -- 24.0 percent. However, the scenarios also would increase out-of-pocket spending for enrollees and, in some cases, causemillions of seniors not to enroll in the program and to be left without coverage. To achieve substantial cost savings without causing substantial lack of coverage among seniors, policy makers should consider benefitchanges in combination with other options, such as some of those now being contemplated by the Obama administration and Congress

Rethinking the Affordable Care Act's "Cadillac Tax": A More Equitable Way to Encourage "Chevy" Consumption

The Affordable Care Act's "Cadillac tax" will apply a 40 percent excise tax on total employer health insurance premiums in excess of $10,200 for single coverage and$27,500 for family coverage, starting in 2018. Employer spending on premiums is currently excluded from income and payroll taxes. Economists argue that this encourages overconsumption of health care, favors high-income workers, and reduces federal revenue. This issue brief suggests that the Cadillac tax is a "blunt instrument" for addressing these concerns because it will affect workers on a rolling timetable, does relatively little to address the regressive nature of the current exclusion, and may penalize firms and workers for cost variation that is outside their control. Replacing the current exclusion with tax credits for employer coverage that scale inversely with income might allow for regional adjustments in health care costs and eliminate aspects of the tax exclusion that favor high-income over low-income workers

Randkonzentrierte und adaptive hp-FEM

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit verschiedenen Aspekten der hp-FEM. Insbesondere werden hierbei folgende Punkte genauer untersucht: 1. Das effiziente Aufstellen der Steifigkeitsmatrix auf Referenzelementen, die keine Tensorproduktstruktur besitzen. 2. Eine lokale Konvergenzbetrachtung für die randkonzentrierte hp-FEM. 3. Ein Multilevel-Löser für die randkonzentrierte hp-FEM. 4. Eine Strategie für hp-Adaptivität