Boskin, Michael, (2015), “What Should China Do?”, Project Syndicate, 26 Αυγούστου The Chinese government’s heavy-handed efforts to contain recent stock-market volatility – the latest move prohibits short selling and sales by major shareholders – have seriously damaged its credibility. But China’s policy failures should come as no surprise. Policymakers there are far from the first to mismanage financial markets, currencies, and trade. Many European governments, for example, suffered humiliating losses …Read More

Godement, François, (2015), “China’s stock market crash: the end of a myth”, European Council on Foreing Relations, 25 Αυγούστου To any student of geo-economics, the current gyrations of China’s and the world’s stock markets are fascinating.  The Shanghai exchange is notoriously volatile: two years ago it was thoroughly depressed when the Chinese economy seemed to be booming, while over the past year it has been boiling as China’s economy slowed …Read More

Van der Cruijsen, Carin, Jan Jansen, David, De Haan, Jacob, (2015), “What the general public knows about monetary policy”, Voxeu, 23 Αυγούστου Central banks have typically targeted their communication at financial markets. Increasingly, however, many have started actively communicating with the general public. Using Dutch survey data, this column finds that the public’s knowledge of monetary policy objectives is far from perfect, and varies widely across respondents. Those with a greater understanding of …Read More

Weeks, John, (2015), “Economic Recovery? Why Eurozone Under-performance Continues”, Social Europe Journal, 25 Αυγούστου Prior to the release of growth statistics in the middle of August there was widespread expectation that a sustained eurozone recovery would at last be verified. However, the numbers showed a result familiar to long suffering commuters all over Europe – “we regret that this service is delayed”. This is far from the first such disappointment …Read More

Mody, Ashoka, Wolff, Guntram, (2015), “Euro Area Banks Remain Vulnerable”, Bruegel publications, 21 Αυγούστου The euro area’s biggest banks have reported record profits. The stress tests published by the European Central Bank late last year showed that the largest banks—those with assets of more than €500 billion—have been able to cut their non-performing exposures and increase their provisions. But the euro area banking system is not out of the woods. …Read More

Bluedorn, John,  Ilyina, Anna, Iossifov, Plamen, (2015), “Banking Union Before Euro Adoption: Flak Jacket or Straitjacket?”, IMF Direct, 19 Αυγούστου All European Union members, except Denmark and the United Kingdom, are expected under EU treaties to eventually adopt the euro. Six Central and Eastern EU members – Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania – are yet to do so. In the meantime, these countries have a decision to make: Should they opt in …Read More