Merler, S. (2014) “Super Mario: 1up? – the ECB cuts the three reference rates and introduces a private asset purchase programme“, Bruegel Think Tank, 05 Σεπτεμβρίου.   The stake at this month’s meeting of the ECB’s Governing Council was exceptionally high. Mario Draghi himself raised the bar of expectations, with his intervention at Jackson Hole. That speech marked a significant change in his language, on a number of important dimensions. …Read More

Kirkegaard, F. J. (2014) “The ECB Throws down the Gauntlet“, The Peterson Institute for International Economics, 05 Σεπτεμβρίου.   The European Central Bank (ECB) surprised financial markets on September 4 by announcing an interest rate cut of 10 basis points, a new program to purchase asset-backed securities (ABS) in the nonfinancial sector, and another round of purchases of covered bank bonds. The ECB was responding not only to the recent …Read More

Marzinotto, Β. & Turrini, Α. (2014) “Which factors shape the relationship between manufacturing and government wages?“, VoxEU Organisation, 05 Σεπτεμβρίου.   The link between public- and private-sector compensation has important implications for the labour market and price competitiveness. This column reports that manufacturing and government wages co-move both in the long and short run, but that the long-run co-movement is much stronger where the government is an important employer. This …Read More

Derviş, Κ. & Saraceno, F. (2014) “An Investment New Deal for Europe“, Brookings Blog, 03 Σεπτεμβρίου.   Six years into the crisis, the eurozone remains the sick man of the world economy. Its GDP today is barely at the pre-crisis level, deflation looms and the difference between the healthier core and a struggling periphery is not resolved. Moreover, even Germany may be slowing down, and Finland is in persistent recession. …Read More

Szczurek, M. (2014) “Investing for Europe’s Future“, VoxEU Organisation, 05 Σεπτεμβρίου.   The ‘lost decade’ is not a scenario for the EU, it’s the baseline forecast. In this column, Polish Finance Minister Mateusz Szczurek calls for an EU-wide public investment programme of 5.5% of GDP to overcome the constraints behind Europe’s ‘secular stagnation’. He calculates that €700 billion of capital expenditures could close the output gap in the short term …Read More

Tierney, S. (2014) “Europe is entering the ‘age of the referendum’, but there is nothing to fear for European democracy if referendums are properly regulated“, LSE EUROPP, 02 Σεπτεμβρίου.   Referendums have become increasingly common occurrences in European states in recent decades. Stephen Tierneywrites on some of the potential benefits and dangers of using referendums to solve key constitutional questions. He writes that while referendums can undermine democracy if used …Read More

De Grauwe, P. (2014) “The wrong medicine, The Eurozone’s remedies against sluggish growth rates aren’t working. The problem: a misdiagnosis of the illness“, The European Magazine, 26 Αυγούστου.   At the start of 2014 there was some hope that the economic recovery in the Eurozone would gather momentum. This hope has dissipated as the year has progressed. The slow growth in the Eurozone has become endemic since the start of …Read More

Ekkehard Ernst (2014) “Backing the wrong horse, The solution to ease mass unemployment is at hand, but policymakers across Europe are too blind to see it“, The European Magazine, 02 Σεπτεμβρίου.   Even today in 2014, the job market is likely to remain Europe’s number one problem child. Five years after the outbreak of the euro crisis and two years after Mario Draghi pledged to do “whatever it takes” to …Read More