Varoufakis, Y., (2014), “What you should know about Greece’s present state of affairs  an update”, yanisvaroufakis.eu, 4 Μαρτίου. “It takes a passionate disregard for the truth to suggest that Greece is recovering.” That was my verdict last December upon being asked to comment on Greece’s rumoured recovery. Almost three months later, it is time for an update. The gist of today’s update is depressingly simple: Still, no sign of Greek-covery whatsoever. Indeed, every …Read More

O’ Rourke, K., (2014), “Whither the Euro?”, IMF Publications, 28 Φεβρουαρίου. The euro area economy is in a terrible mess. In December 2013 euro area GDP was still 3 percent lower than in the first quarter of 2008, in stark contrast with the United States, where GDP was 6 percent higher. GDP was 8 percent below its precrisis level in Ireland, 9 percent below in Italy, and 12 percent below …Read More

Λιαργκόβας, Π., (2014): «Η Ευρώπη και η κρίση», Foreign Affairs: The Hellenic Edition, 26 Φεβρουαρίου. Το Ευρώ – το νέο, ενιαίο νόμισμα της Ευρώπης – αποτελεί την κορύφωση της ευρωπαϊκής οικονομικής ολοκλήρωσης. Η εισαγωγή του την 1η Ιανουαρίου 1999 σηματοδότησε την τελική φάση τής Οικονομικής και Νομισματικής Ένωσης (ΟΝΕ), μια διαδικασία τριών σταδίων που ξεκίνησε το 1990 καθώς τα μέλη τής Ε.Ε. προετοιμάζονταν για το 1992 και την ενιαία αγορά. …Read More

Pistor, K., (2014), “German Court decision: Legal authority and deep power implications”, VoxEU, 26 Φεβρουαρίου Who wields supreme power over the ECB? This column analyses the recent ruling by the German Constitutional Court that the ECB cannot act as lender of last resort. Although seemingly couched by the referral of this decision to the European Court of Justice, this is a bid for power and the return to the pre-crisis …Read More

Rocard, M., (2014), “Taming Europe’s Banks”, Project Syndicate, 25 Φεβρουαρίου. Last month, the European Commission unveiled its much-anticipated blueprint for banking reform, aimed at reining in risk-taking by the European Union’s largest banks. But the proposal has met significant resistance, with some warning that it would erode European banks’ competitiveness, and others arguing that it is inadequate to mitigate banking risks effectively. How this debate unfolds will have profound implications …Read More

Onado, M., (2014), “European banks: Between a rock (need of more capital) and a hard place (low profitability)”, VoxEU, 23 Φεβρουαρίου. The financial crisis has put to the forefront the long-debated issue of banks’ capital adequacy, showing that banks were much more fragile than they (and their regulators) pretended, also because they were allowed to push their leverage to levels much higher than any industrial company, or even a hedge …Read More

O‘Neill, J. and Terzi, Al., (2014), “Changing trade patterns, unchanging European and global governance”, Bruegel, 25 Φεβρουαρίου. The world economy is going through its biggest transformation in a relatively short space time. There have been many explanations for this phenomenon but the unprecedented scale and pace of this change and, most crucially, its implications, still seems little understood. In turn, there has been little preparation for, or adjustment to, this …Read More

Bibow, J., (2014), “On German Public Opinion And Illusional ECB Power”, Social Europe Journal, 24 Φεβρουαρίου. After taking a short breather in late January-early February, the markets now seem to be back in ‘happy mode’. Whether the news on the economic recovery is good or bad doesn’t really matter. The current convention is that growth acceleration is under way. That emerging markets had become key drivers of global growth was …Read More

Greene, M., (2014), “The Eurozone’s Imperfect Banking Union”, Open Markets, 20 Φεβρουαρίου. The ECB is currently gearing up to look under the hood of Eurozone’s 128 largest banks in an asset quality review and stress test before taking over supervision of the biggest banks. There is immense political pressure on the ECB from national supervisors to not find any big capital holes in the banks. If big capital holes were …Read More

Ballabriga, F., (2014), “Euro Zone Crisis: Diagnosis and Likely Solutions”, ESADEgeo POSITION PAPER 35, Φεβρουάριος. This policy brief provides a short guiding tour to the euro zone crisis. It looks at the current  situation, the context conditioning the solutions to the situation, how we got here, and the possible way out. The latter section outlines a set of minimum steps required to make the euro sustainable. Southern euro countries are …Read More