Giugliano, Ferdinando, (2017), “Draghi’s Right to Keep His Foot on the Gas”, Bloomberg View, 28 Απριλίου Since becoming president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi has rarely looked as relaxed as he did in Thursday’s press conference. It’s not hard to see why: The euro-zone economy is gathering speed, confidence is soaring, and unemployment is tumbling. The recovery is also spreading across the region, reducing the risk that some …Read More

Hennette, Stéphanie, Sacriste, Thomas Piketty Guillaume, Vauchez, Antoine, (2017), “For A Treaty Democratizing Euro Area Governance”, Social Europe, 27 Απριλίου Over the last ten years of economic and financial crisis, a new centre of European power has taken shape: the ‘government’ of the Euro Area. The expression may seem badly chosen as it remains hard to identify the democratically accountable ‘institution’ which today implements European economic policies. We are indeed aiming …Read More

Mersch, Yves, (2017), “Why Europe Still Needs Cash”, Project Syndicate, 26 Απριλίου Non-cash payment options have been proliferating in recent years. Credit cards, online transfers, and direct-debit payments are already well established. Now, smartphone-enabled digital-payment solutions and mobile wallets are also gaining ground. The emergence of potentially disruptive innovations like distributed ledger technologies indicate that further and possibly fundamental change may be on the horizon. Independent of these new and incipient …Read More

Berger, Ennet, Wolff, Guntram B., (2017), “The global decline in the labour income share: is capital the answer to Germany’s current account surplus?”, Bruegel, 26 April There are two broad views of adjustment in Europe’s economic and monetary union. The first is that the divergence of competitiveness in the euro area is the fault of the peripheral countries, which were guilty of “losing their competitiveness simply by becoming too expensive” prior …Read More

Cheung, Yin-Wong, Chinn, Menzie , Pascual, Antonio Garcia, Zhang, Yi, (2017), “Exchange rate prediction redux”, Vox Eu, 27 Απριλίου Over the past decade, advanced economy exchange rates have exhibited substantial variability, even as conventional empirical determinants – such as interest rates and inflation – have remained fairly stable. At the same, the Global Crisis was associated with unprecedented levels of risk and illiquidity, with obvious effects on financial markets. These developments …Read More

Emons, Ben, (2017), “ECB Meeting Comes at a Precarious Time for Markets”, Bloomberg View, 25 Απριλίου The recent economic data out of the euro zone is encouraging. Production, manufacturing and confidence are robust, and inflation has stabilized. That’s not to say that there aren’t risks to the downside, such as growing populism, global geopolitical tensions, and uncertainty about sustainability of the economic recovery. To insure against these risks, the European …Read More

Η Καθημερινή, (2017), “Ισλανδία: Τριγμοί μετά την άρση των capital controls”, 25 Απριλίου 2017 Τις δυσκολίες που συνεπάγεται η προσπάθεια μιας χώρας να απεμπλακεί από τους ελέγχους στις κινήσεις κεφαλαίων, όταν αυτοί έχουν επιβληθεί σε κατάσταση εκτάκτου ανάγκης, αποτελεί η περίπτωση της Ισλανδίας και η τύχη του νομίσματός της, της ισλανδικής κορώνας. Λίγες εβδομάδες μετά την άρση των ελέγχων στις κινήσεις κεφαλαίων, που επί οκτώ χρόνια είχαν περιφρουρήσει το ισλανδικό …Read More