Silvia Merler, (2018), “The Italian Crisis”, Bruegel, 4 Ιουνίου Ferdinando Giugliano notices how the Italian president has been cast as an enemy of democracy after his refusal to accept a eurosckeptic finance minister, while the anti-establishment League (La Lega) and the Five Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle or M5S) parties – who chose to blow up their attempt to form a government instead of proposing an alternative name – have …Read More

Arna Olafsson, Michaela Pagel, (2018), “The retirement-consumption puzzle: New evidence from personal finances”, VoxEU, 7 Ιουνίου A large academic literature in economics analyses changes in household consumption upon retirement. After all, household consumption is the most important part of aggregate demand and the increase in the share of the workforce that will be approaching or past retirement age in the coming years puts this topic at centerstage for both policymakers and …Read More

ECB (2018)/Monetary policy in a low interest rate environment/6 Ιουνίου Monetary policy plays an important role by creating an environment which facilitates the necessary structural adjustments, even if in itself it cannot address structural aspects of the economy. Indeed, by laying the groundwork for a return of inflation to our objective, our monetary policy measures have been supporting economic activity and have alleviated damage to the economy’s growth potential. Our …Read More

Mário Centeno, Miguel Castro Coelho, (2018), “The turnaround of the Portuguese economy: Two decades of structural changes”, VoxEU, 6 Ιουνίου In the run-up to introduction of the euro in 2002, perceptions about Portugal’s economic prospects and investment risk changed, resulting in a substantial increase in private debt and a mild domestic demand-led boom. The boom gave way, in the 2000s, to a decade of protracted growth, worsening labour market conditions, …Read More

Andrea L. P. Pirro, (2018), “Understanding populism: What role do crises play in the growth of Euroscepticism?”, EUROPP, LSE, 6 Ιουνίου Three distinct crises have hit the European Union in the last decade: the Great Recession, the migration crisis, and Brexit. As Andrea L. P. Pirro explains, there has been a widespread assumption that populist parties with Eurosceptic profiles have been the main political beneficiaries from these crises. But there …Read More

Νένα Μαλλιάρα, (2018), “Στα σκαριά “πακέτο” buffer και προληπτικής γραμμής λόγω Ιταλίας και τραπεζών“, capital.gr, 4 Ιουνίου Σε συνδυασμό μαξιλαριού ρευστότητας και προληπτικής πιστωτικής γραμμής ενόψει της εξόδου της Ελλάδας από το πρόγραμμα τον Αύγουστο, φαίνεται πως οδηγεί η αυξημένη μεταβλητότητα στις αγορές. Εν μέσω κινδύνων και αβεβαιοτήτων που επανέρχονται διεθνώς, το σενάριο της προληπτικής γραμμής στήριξης που “αφορίζεται” από την κυβέρνηση προκειμένου να μην πληγεί το αφήγημα της καθαρής …Read More

Andrea Lorenzo Capussela, (2018), “Italy’s crisis and the question of democracy”, EUROPP, LSE, 4 Ιουνίου The crisis exploded on the highest of Rome’s hills, between the evening of Sunday 28 May and the following afternoon. The trigger was a sequence of three discrete choices. First, the president of the republic refused to appoint as finance minister the person chosen by the two political parties that prepared to take office, the …Read More

Alessio Terzi, (2018), “Italian populism calls for hard choices”, Bruegel, 31 Μαΐου Prompted by an unfolding political crisis and financial-market sell-offs, several international observers have only just tuned in to Italy’s current situation. Often, they have been shocked by the strength of support in an EU founder-country for parties embracing such inflammatory, populist and illiberal rhetoric. In the best case, many have jumped to simplistic explanations, the most frequent of …Read More

kathimerini.gr (2018), “Από το Grexit στο Italexit”, 1 Ιουνίου Η πολιτική αβεβαιότητα στη Ρώμη εντείνει τους φόβους στις χρηματαγορές για αναζωπύρωση της κρίσης χρέους στην Ευρωζώνη. Εντούτοις, σε αντίθεση με την Ελλάδα, η Ιταλία είναι πολύ μεγάλη για να σωθεί. Εντείνονται οι ανησυχίες για αναζωπύρωση της κρίσης χρέους στην Ευρωζώνη με αφορμή τη συνεχιζόμενη πολιτική αβεβαιότητα στην Ιταλία. Την Τρίτη η απόδοση των ιταλικών ομολόγων διετούς διάρκειας ανήλθε στο 2,64%. …Read More