Gaillard, N., (2013), “Credit rating agencies and the Eurozone Crisis: What is the value of sovereign ratings?”, www.voxeu.org, 9 Σεπτεμβρίου. Credit rating agencies didn’t anticipate the Eurozone Crisis and their ratings have been procyclical ever since. This column discusses research on the agencies’ recent performance. Since 2009, credit ratings have persistently lagged behind market spreads, suggesting that ratings have been more lenient with respect to Eurozone countries than generally believed. …Read More

Uhlig, Η., (2013), “Sovereign default risk and banks in Europe’s monetary union”, www.voxeu.org, 5 Σεπτεμβρίου. EZ banks are more exposed to their own nation’s government bonds than ever. This column argues that Eurozone members can now afford to tell their banks to diversify, but pressure from Germany, Austria, France and the ECB might be necessary. Defusing the pernicious entanglement between the Eurozone’s weak banks and weak sovereigns would reduce the …Read More

Bletzinger, Τ., Wieland, V., (2013), “Low for how long? Estimating the ECB’s “Extended Period of Time”, www.voxeu.com, 5 Σεπτεμβρίου. The ECB has promised to keep interest rates low for an “extended period of time”. In a broad hint to the profession, President Draghi stressed a reasonable forecast of this period could be extracted from a monetary policy reaction function. This column presents one such forecast based on published macro forecasts …Read More