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Belgian Economic Miracle
The Belgian economic miracle (french: Le miracle belge, nl, Het belgische wonder, literally "The Belgian Miracle") was a period of rapid economic growth in Belgium after World War II, principally between 1945 and 1948. It was characterised by parallel trends of rising employment and real wages and low inflation, leading to improvements in living standards. It formed part of the period of rapid post-war economic expansion in Western Europe in the late 1940s and 1950s but preceded many other "economic miracles" and was notably shorter in duration. The term itself has been criticised in relation to its possible contribution to the growing obsolescence of Belgian heavy industry in the 1950s and 1960s and emergence of deindustrialisation. Economic miracle During World War II, Belgium had been occupied by Nazi Germany and had seen a deterioration in its gross domestic product through war damage and the economic policies pursued by the occupiers, despite the efforts of Alexandre Ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economic Growth
Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate of increase in the real gross domestic product, or real GDP. Growth is usually calculated in real terms – i.e., inflation-adjusted terms – to eliminate the distorting effect of inflation on the prices of goods produced. Measurement of economic growth uses national income accounting. Since economic growth is measured as the annual percent change of gross domestic product (GDP), it has all the advantages and drawbacks of that measure. The economic growth-rates of countries are commonly compared using the ratio of the GDP to population (per-capita income). The "rate of economic growth" refers to the geometric annual rate of growth in GDP between the first and the last year over a period of time. This growth rate represents the trend in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monetary Policy
Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to control either the interest rate payable for very short-term borrowing (borrowing by banks from each other to meet their short-term needs) or the money supply, often as an attempt to reduce inflation or the interest rate, to ensure price stability and general trust of the value and stability of the nation's currency. Monetary policy is a modification of the supply of money, i.e. "printing" more money, or decreasing the money supply by changing interest rates or removing excess reserves. This is in contrast to fiscal policy, which relies on taxation, government spending, and government borrowing as methods for a government to manage business cycle phenomena such as recessions. Further purposes of a monetary policy are usually to contribute to the stability of gross domestic product, to achieve and maintain low unemployment, and to maintain predictable exchange rates with other currencies. Monetary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—along with Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the country, Wallonia is primarily French-speaking. It accounts for 55% of Belgium's territory, but only a third of its population. The Walloon Region and the French Community of Belgium, which is the political entity responsible for matters related mainly to culture and education, are independent concepts, because the French Community of Belgium encompasses both Wallonia and the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region. There is a German-speaking minority in eastern Wallonia, resulting from the annexation of three cantons previously part of the German Empire at the conclusion of World War I. This community represents less than 1% of the Belgian population. It forms the German-speak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of World War II. Replacing an earlier proposal for a Morgenthau Plan, it operated for four years beginning on April 3, 1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize Manufacturing, industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan proposed the reduction of interstate barriers and the economic integration of the European Continent while also encouraging an increase in productivity as well as the adoption of modern business procedures. The Marshall Plan aid was divided among the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the major industrial powers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monetarism
Monetarism is a school of thought in monetary economics that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation. Monetarist theory asserts that variations in the money supply have major influences on measures of national income and output, national output in the short run and on price levels over longer periods. Monetarists assert that the objectives of monetary policy are best met by targeting the growth rate of the money supply rather than by engaging in discretionary policy, discretionary monetary policy.Phillip Cagan, 1987. "Monetarism", ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, Reprinted in John Eatwell et al. (1989), ''Money: The New Palgrave'', pp. 195–205, 492–97. Monetarism is commonly associated with neoliberalism. Monetarism today is mainly associated with the work of Milton Friedman, who was among the generation of economists to reject Keynesian economics and criticise Keynes's theory of fighting economic downturns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economic Miracle
Economic miracle is an informal economic term for a period of dramatic economic development that is entirely unexpected or unexpectedly strong. Economic miracles have occurred in the recent histories of a number of countries, often those undergoing an economic boom, or described as a tiger economy. Early modern period * Dutch economic miracle of the 1600s ( Dutch Republic's economy in its Golden Age), often considered by many as the very first modern economic miracle. Post-World War II See Post–World War II economic expansion. *Four Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, c. 1960s–1990s) **Miracle on the Han River (South Korea, c. 1962–1997) **Taiwan Miracle (1961–2000) * Swiss miracle (c. 1940s-2000s) *Japanese economic miracle (c. 1945–1990) *Trente Glorieuses (France, c. 1945–1975) *Record years (Sweden, c. 1947–1974) *''Wirtschaftswunder'' (West Germany and Austria, c. 1950s–1970s) * Mexican miracle (c. 1940s–1970s) (term not used by eco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guest Worker Program
A guest worker program allows foreign workers to temporarily reside and work in a host country until a next round of workers is readily available to switch. Guest workers typically perform low or semi-skilled agricultural, industrial, or domestic labor in countries with workforce shortages, and they return home once their contract has expired.Levine, Linda. United States. Congressional Research Service. The Effects on U.S. Farmworkers of an Agricultural Guest Worker Program. 111 Cong. Cong. Rept. N.p.: n.p., n.d. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 22 Mar. 2000. While migrant workers may move within a country to find labor, guest worker programs employ workers from areas outside of the host country. Guest workers are not considered permanent immigrants due to the temporary nature of their contracts. United States In the United States, there have been efforts at guest worker programs for many years. These include the Bracero Program, enacted during World War II; attempts by the George W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Prisoners Of War In Northwest Europe
More than 2.8 million German soldiers surrendered on the Western Front between D-Day (June 6, 1944) and the end of April 1945; 1.3 million between D-Day and March 31, 1945;2,055,575 German soldiers surrendered between D-Day and April 16, 1945, ''The Times'', April 19 p 4; 755,573 German soldiers surrendered between April 1 and 16, ''The Times'', April 18 p 4, which means that 1,300,002 German soldiers surrendered to the Western Allies between D-Day and the end of March 1945. and 1.5 million of them in the month of April. From early March, these surrenders seriously weakened the Wehrmacht in the West, and made further surrenders more likely, thus having a snowballing effect. On March 27, Dwight D. Eisenhower declared at a press conference that the enemy were a whipped army.''The Times'', March 28 page 4, headline ‘A WHIPPED ARMY, REVIEW BY SUPREME COMMANDER.’ … ‘Quarter of a million German soldiers have been captured since March 1,’ press release dated March 27. In March ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labour Shortage
In economics, a shortage or excess demand is a situation in which the demand for a product or service exceeds its supply in a market. It is the opposite of an excess supply ( surplus). Definitions In a perfect market (one that matches a simple microeconomic model), an excess of demand will prompt sellers to increase prices until demand at that price matches the available supply, establishing market equilibrium. In economic terminology, a shortage occurs when for some reason (such as government intervention, or decisions by sellers not to raise prices) the price does not rise to reach equilibrium. In this circumstance, buyers want to purchase more at the market price than the quantity of the good or service that is available, and some non-price mechanism (such as "first come, first served" or a lottery) determines which buyers are served. So in a perfect market the only thing that can cause a shortage is price. In common use, the term "shortage" may refer to a situation whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borinage
The Borinage () is an area in the Walloon province of Hainaut in Belgium. The name derives from the coal mines of the region, ''bores'' meaning mineshafts. In French the inhabitants of the Borinage are called Borains. The provincial capital Mons is located in the east of the Borinage, but there was a great sociological difference between the inhabitants of Mons and the Borains of all the villages around Mons. Rise and fall of coal "From the 18th century to 1850, the economy of thirty municipalities in the Borinage was founded on coal mining. Between 1822 and 1829, production more than doubled in that region i.e. from 602,000 to 1,260,000 tons. That was more than the total production of France and Germany at the time. The Borinage exported its coal mostly to France and Flanders." In 1878, several fossils of iguanodons were found: this find was unique because complete skeletons were present. When this area was occupied by the Germans in World War I, a few attempts were made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance programs which provide support only to those who have previously contributed (e.g. most pension systems), as opposed to ''social assistance'' programs which provide support on the basis of need alone (e.g. most disability benefits). The International Labour Organization defines social security as covering support for those in old age, support for the maintenance of children, medical treatment, parental and sick leave, unemployment and disability benefits, and support for sufferers of occupational injury. More broadly, welfare may also encompass efforts to provide a basic level of well-being through free or subsidized ''social services'' such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, vocational training, and publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achille Van Acker
Achille Van Acker (8 April 1898 – 10 July 1975) was a Belgian politician who served three terms as the prime minister of Belgium between 1946 and 1958. A moderate from Flanders, Van Acker was a member of the Belgian Socialist Party (PSB–BSP) and played an important role in the creation of the Belgian welfare state after World War II. Biography Early life Achille Honoré Van Acker was born into a working class family in Bruges, Belgium in 1898 as the youngest of 12 children. He only attended school until the age of 11. Despite entering the workforce, Van Acker read widely and joined several social associations in Bruges. At the outbreak of World War I, he was refused by the Belgian Army because he suffered from astigmatism. While the Germans occupied most of Belgium, Van Acker fled into the small section of unoccupied territory behind the Yser Front where he worked in various menial capacities. Mixing with Belgian soldiers during the war, Van Acker became involved in sociali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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