Roubini, Nouriel, (2016), “Unconventional Monetary Policy On Stilts”, Social Europe, 5 Απριλίου With most advanced economies experiencing anemic recoveries from the 2008 financial crisis, their central banks have been forced to move from conventional monetary policy – reducing policy rates via open-market purchases of short-term government bonds – to a range of unconventional policies. Although the zero nominal bound on interest rates – previously only a theoretical possibility – had been …Read More

Kleymenova, Anya, Rose, Andrew K, Wieladek, Tomasz, (2016), “Government intervention reduces banking globalisation”, Voxeu, 5 Απριλίου Post-crisis banking is in trouble, with cross-border bank lending significantly slower than before. Many economists think that this is down to complications from government ownership. This column argues that although government ownership is not the only possible friction or reason for cross-border bank lending, it is an inhibitor of cross-border bank activity in both the UK and …Read More

Ferry, Pisani, Jean (2016), “Preparing For Europe’s Next Recession“, Social Europe, 1 Απριλίου In 2015, eurozone output barely exceeded its 2008 level, a dismal performance for which sluggish productivity growth cannot be blamed. Despite considerable slack in the economy, growth in 2015 was a disappointing 1.5%, and the ECB expects just 1.4% growth this year. This is far better than the contraction that occurred from 2011 to 2013, but one would expect …Read More

 Probin, Jayson, (2016), “Where next for the ECB?- Part 1: Why Draghi’s ‘Big Bazooka’ isn’t quite as big as it appears”, OpenEurope, 31 Μαρτίου Probably the single largest component of the latest stimulus package was the increase in the size of QE by €20bn to €80bn a month. The ECB hopes that this will further driven down interest rates across a range of assets and further depreciate the euro thus …Read More

Fazi, Thomas, (2016), “How Austerity Has Crippled The European Economy – In Numbers”, Social Europe, 31 Μαρτίου Europe’s post-crisis response – consisting of a combination of fiscal austerity, neoliberal structural reforms and expansionary monetary policies – has unambiguously failed. In early 2016 – eight years after the outbreak of the financial crisis – the eurozone’s overall real GDP was still below the pre-crisis peak (March 2008). The Greek economy was 27.6 …Read More

Kanbur, Ravi, Ronconi, Lucas, (2016), “Stricter labour laws go hand-in-hand with less enforcement effort”, Voxeu, 30 Μαρτίου Current de jure measures of labour regulation stringency point to negative consequences of labour laws. This column presents new evidence on cross-country measurements of enforcement of labour laws from almost every country in the world. The authors argue that the consequences of labour enforcement cannot be credibly assessed using de jure measures which ignore the …Read More

Wolff, Guntram B., Bénassy-Quéré, Agnès, (2016), “ECB decisions put lack of fiscal union in the spotlight”, Bruegel, 30 Μαρτίου Fiscal policy in the euro area is hardly supporting the recovery and the ECB. The EU needs a a proper fiscal union in order to stabilise the economy and inflation. We see four main avenues for achieving a viable fiscal framework. Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις Eijffinger, Sylvester, (2016), “The ECB Goes Rogue”, Project Syndicate, 18 Μαρτίου Bénassy-Quéré, Agnès, Ragot, Xavier, Wolff, Guntram …Read More

Goodhart, Charles A.E., Schoenmaker, Dirk, (2016), “The US is beginning to dominate global investment banking: Implications for Europe”, Voxeu, 28 Μαρτίου The European banking system is downsizing. As a consequence, the big US investment banks are on the rise in Europe. This column argues that US investment banks are about to surpass their European counterparts in the European investment banking market. The authors also discuss why leaving global investment banking to …Read More

Sinn, Hans-Werner, (2016), “Europe’s Emerging Bubbles”, Project Syndicate, 28 Μαρτίου The European Central Bank’s latest policy moves have shocked many observers. While the goal – to prevent deflation and spur growth – is clear, the policies themselves are setting the stage for severe instability. Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις Eijffinger, Sylvester, (2016), “The ECB Goes Rogue”, Project Syndicate, 18 Μαρτίου Merler, Silvia, (2016), “ECB TLTRO 2.0 – Lending at negative rates”, Bruegel Blog, 11 …Read More

Gorton, Gary B., Ordoñez, Guillermo L, (2016), “Good booms, bad booms: Why only some credit booms end in a crisis”, Voxeu, 27 Μαρτίου Credit booms are not rare and usually precede financial crises. However, some end in a crisis while others do not. This column argues that credit booms start with an increase in productivity, which subsequently falls much faster during ‘bad booms’. When this decline is severe enough, it changes …Read More