The Eiffel Group, (2014), “For a Euro Community”, Bruegel, 14 Φεβρουαρίου. Everyone expected that Economic and Monetary Union would bring prosperity and improve the living conditions and employment possibilities of Europe’s citizens, prior to political rapprochement. Its design flaws, and management errors, have produced the opposite. Europe’s citizens have grave doubts. We however are convinced that we must not give up. The initial goals of European integration – to ensure …Read More

Bauchowitz, St., (2014), “Entrepreneurship in Southern Europe: Symptom or Solution to the Euro Crisis?”, LSE Eurocrisis in the Press, 14 Φεβρουαρίου. Entrepreneurship has long been recognised as an important factor in generating economic growth[1], but the post gets the roots of Greece’s (not so new) entrepreneurship wrong. Where there are few employment possibilities people will have to become entrepreneurs – but these are subsistence entrepreneurs, which are quite distinct from …Read More

Warner, J., (2014), “The eurozone crisis is just getting started”, The Telegraph, 14 Φεβρουαρίου. On the face of it, they seem worlds apart. Switzerland’s referendum vote against the free movement of labour, the ruling by the German Constitutional Court on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) attempts to save the euro, and the warning to Scotland that it won’t be allowed to keep the pound if it votes for independence – …Read More

Sapir, A., (2014), “France and Germany must both change economic strategy”, Bruegel Blog, 13 Φεβρουαρίου. The euro was first and foremost a Franco-German project, not only politically but also economically. Thanks to its stability culture, Germany had a strong currency. At times, when the dollar was weak, the D-mark was even too strong, penalizing German exporters in favor of their European competitors. Germany was therefore keen to have France and …Read More

Guha, K., (2014), “Can Mario Draghi Beat Deflation?”, Bloomberg Opinion, 12 Φεβρουαρίου. The European Central Bank may soon have to roll out the heavy artillery, in the form of an asset purchase program similar to those in the U.S., U.K. and Japan, to fight the specter of deflation. But in a currency union with 18 different sovereign bonds, the tough question will be what to buy. The best solution: Purchase …Read More

Mody A., (2014), “The ECB’s Bridge Too Far”, Project Syndicate, 11 Φεβρουαρίου. The German Constitutional Court’s recent decision to refer the complaint against the European Central Bank’s so-called “outright monetary transactions” to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) leaves the scheme’s fate uncertain. What is clear is that the economics behind OMT is flawed – and so is the politics. The OMT program arose in August 2012, when months of …Read More