works for monica and myself is to keep all our receipts ; once every month monica sits down, adds up everything, compares it with my monthly salary, and figures out whether we ’ re in deficit or surplus, and by how much. if you do that every month for a few months, you develop a sense of your spending patterns, and you are able to pinpoint, without much difficulty, the things that you might well do without, which take you over budget. in normal times you will want to put aside a little every month, to add to the reserve against a rainy day. when times get tough you may have to suspend this additional saving for a while. but only if things get really dire will you want to dip into that reserve. the prolonged recession also poses challenges for small businesses. their cash flows are diminished, but their expenses remain much the same : wages, utilities, interest payments, vat, nis, office supplies, and inputs for fabrication, finishing or retailing. government has offered some temporary relief on nis payments, but nonetheless most small businesses are faced with a need to cut back on overheads. it is best to make a medium term adjustment plan, with the help of a bank or financial adviser, rather than to attempt to dig yourself out of a hole in a hurry. in extreme cases it should be possible to arrange debt restructuring with your bankers, if the alternative is to build up arrears which you have no means of paying. how much longer before things start to improve? we ’ re already seeing some positive signs ( in tourism, for example ), but it is too early to say. we shouldn ’ t rush. after making all this sacrifice for the past 2 years, we cannot afford to jump the gun, only to find that we are spending more on imports than our foreign exchange earnings will support. it is better to err on the side of caution. only when it is very clear that we have emerged from the recession, when foreign exchange inflows are robust once again and foreign reserves are building up without any need for foreign borrowing for general purposes, only then can we confidently ramp up employment generating activities. in this way we cannot be caught wrong - footed if the recovery turns out to be more sluggish than expected. all in all, barbadians have kept level heads in the current crisis. we have accepted that we must tread water for a while, until the prospects for tourism and international business services, which are

mario draghi : sovereignty in a globalised world speech by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, on the award of laurea honoris causa in law from universita degli studi di bologna, bologna, 22 february 2019. * * * it is a great honour to be speaking here today at the university of bologna. as europe ’ s oldest university, it has been at the heart of education and learning in europe for over 900 years. it has a long history of welcoming students from across the continent, including thomas beckett and copernicus. erasmus studied here in 1506, and the university of bologna is today a leading participant in the student exchange programme that bears his name. the erasmus programme is one of the many examples of the benefits of the close cooperation within the european union that enjoy widespread popularity. but we know that other elements of european integration are more contested today. at the root of this debate is the inherent tension between the clear gains of economic integration, and the cooperation that is necessary to bring it about, which can sometimes be politically difficult to achieve or explain. i would like to argue that, in many ways, this tension is illusory. rather than taking away countries ’ sovereignty, the eu offers them a way to regain it. this does not mean we need the eu for everything. but in the face of globalisation, the eu is more relevant than ever today. as jean monnet said, “ we need a europe for that which is essential … a europe for what nations cannot do alone. ” sovereignty in an interconnected world on the whole, european citizens appear to welcome the benefits brought about by economic integration through the eu. [ 2 ] the free movement of people, goods and services – that is, the single market – is routinely seen by citizens as the eu ’ s most positive achievement. in the euro area, 75 % of people are in favour of the euro and monetary union, and 71 % of europeans support the eu ’ s common trade policy. yet at the same time, public attitudes towards the eu ’ s political structures seem to be hardening. average trust in the eu stands at 42 %, down from 57 % in 2007. this decline has taken place against the backdrop of a general loss of faith in public institutions. trust in national governments and parliaments has dropped to just 35 %. this tension between economic integration and political cooperation is fuelled by a powerful belief that there is an inherent trade -