And recent research on the government’s so-called war on cancer, initiated by President Nixon in 1971, finds that the effort has produced a very high social rate of return, notwithstanding its failure to achieve its original, ambitious goal of eradicating the disease.5 What about the present? Is government support of R&D today at the “right” level?
At the centre right now are the shocks hitting the world economy and the importance of the ECB to respond to those shocks. Looking at the world economy now, how big a risk is this trade war? So I think it is important to recognise that domestically the European economy has many positives.