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

De Grauwe, P., (2013), “Eurozone recession ends — but it’s too soon to celebrate”, edition.cnn.com,  18 Αυγούστου. Spring is in the air. That’s the feeling in Brussels and Berlin. The latest economic numbers issued by the European Commission seem to indicate that the eurozone has slowly crawledout of the recession.

Sinn, Hans-Werner, (2013), “Saving Europe’s Real Hegemon”, www.project-syndicate.org, 28 Αυγούστου. Last June, the European Commission announced its about-face on bank restructuring. The money for recapitalizing distressed banks would now come primarily from creditors, not European taxpayers, with a pecking order to specify which lenders would be repaid first. All of this is welcome, at least in principle. In practice, however, the scheme leaves much to be desired.

Pisani-Ferry, J., (2013), “The Post-Crisis Global Economy in Three Words”, www.project-syndicate.org, 28 Αυγούστου. Five years have passed since the collapse of the American investment bank Lehman Brothers triggered financial mayhem and marked the onset of the Great Recession. Though the dust may not have fully settled, three catchwords sum up what we have learned so far – and what remains to be done.

P van Dalen, H., Henkens, K., (2013), “The downsizing dilemmas of European employers”, www.voxeu.org, 28 Αυγούστου. In times of economic crisis, managers often take drastic measures to survive. This column presents new research on the preferences of managers from across Europe when faced with ‘downsizing’. It seems that, when recession bites, the instincts or ‘animal spirits’ of employers that were previously suppressed by prosperity or considered to be outdated resurface. …Read More

Blyth, M., (2013), “End Austerity Now”, www.project-syndicate.org, 20 Αυγούστου. In recent weeks, talk about a budding recovery in the eurozone has gained traction, with key indices pointing to expansion in the core countries – data that many are citing as evidence that austerity is finally working. Money-market funds from the United States are returning, albeit cautiously, to resume funding of European bank debt. Even Goldman Sachs is now bullishly piling into European …Read More

Pâris, P.,  Wyplosz, Ch., (2013), “To end the Eurozone crisis, bury the debt forever”, www.voxeu.org, 6 Αυγούστου. The Eurozone’s debt crisis is getting worse despite appearances to the contrary. How can we end it? This column presents five major options for reducing crisis countries’ debt. Looking into the details, it seems the only option that is both realistic and effective is for countries to default by selling monetised debt to the …Read More

Eichengreen, B., (2013),  “The ECB Grows Up”, www.project-syndicate.org, 9 Αυγούστου. August 2 marked the first anniversary of the European Central Bank’s “outright monetary transactions” program, under which it stands ready to purchase government bonds on the secondary market. The ECB announced OMT in response to last summer’s panicked sales of southern European sovereign debt, which threatened to blow apart the eurozone.