Peter Bofinger, (2020), “Time is ripe for a new ECB strategy”, Social Europe, 6 January ” It’s not so much that what the European Central Bank is doing is wrong as that it is not framing public understanding. The next ECB strategy, writes Peter Bofinger, should do so.” Related Posts Gergo Motyovszki, (2020), “The right macroeconomic policies for a Europe saving too much“, Social Europe, 2 January Daniel Gros, (2019), “The …Read More

Gergo Motyovszki, (2020), “The right macroeconomic policies for a Europe saving too much“, Social Europe, 2 January ” A fierce debate is raging about European macroeconomic policy. German media increasingly attack the ultra-loose monetary policies of the European Central Bank (ECB), in defence of prudent savers, while former and current central bankers have criticised further unconventional easing. Beyond monetary hawks pushing for tight money, fiscal orthodoxy is resisting calls for loosening purse strings: the German government is reluctant to …Read More

Felix Roth, Lars Jonung, (2019), «Public support for the euro and trust in the ECB: The first two decades», VoxEU 13 December Support for the euro among citizens (and thus among voters) is a key – perhaps the key – determinant of its long-term survival. Public support is the political glue that holds a monetary union together (Bordo and Jonung 2003). As long as this glue is present, citizens give …Read More

Laurence Boone, Debora Revoltella, (2019), «Policy change needed to accelerate investment in structural transformation», Voxeu, 6 December For the past two years, global growth outcomes and prospects have steadily deteriorated, dragged down by persistent policy uncertainty and weak trade. Investment growth has collapsed in tandem, just when it needed to speed up in response to historic challenges: digitalisation, climate change, trade relations. Urgent policy action is needed to enable the …Read More

Daniel Gros, Angela Capolongo, (2019), «Fiscal policy cannot save the ECB», VoxEU, 3 December Given persistently low inflation, sluggish growth, and global uncertainties, the ECB needs to provide even more monetary stimulus. However, with interest rates already negative and strong opposition to further asset purchases (Financial Times 2019), it seems to have run out of ammunition. This is why the parting ECB President, Mario Draghi, called for fiscal policy “to …Read More

Gregory Claeys, Maria Demertzis, (2019), «The next generation of digital currencies: in search of stability», Brugel, 2 December Four major developments have challenged the status quo and reopened the debate on the forms that money will take in the future: 1) use of cash as a medium of exchange has declined; 2) distributed ledger technology (DLT) has led to the emergence of thousands of digital cryptocurrencies; 3) some global tech giants …Read More

Christiane Nickel, Elena Bobeica, Gerrit Koester, Eliza Lis, Mario Porqueddu, Cecilia Sarchi , (2019), «Beyond the Phillips curve: Understanding low wage growth in the euro area», VoxEU, 25 November The euro area labour market improved strongly from 2013 onwards, while wage growth remained subdued until recently. From the second quarter of 2013 to the second quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate in the euro area decreased from 12.1% to 7.6%. Employment …Read More

Uri dadush, MartaDominguez-Jimenez, Tanlang Gao, (2019), «The state of China-European Union economic relations», 20 November More can be done to capture the untapped trade and investment opportunities that exist between China and the EU. China’s size and dynamism, and its recent shift from an export-led to a domestic demand-led growth model, mean that these opportunities are likely to grow with time. Related Posts Η Καθημερινή, (2019), “H διαμάχη ΗΠΑ, Κίνας …Read More

Alexander Lehmann, (2019), «How the IMF Can Battle Gradual Irrelevance», Project Syndicate, 19 November These days, the International Monetary Fund’s policy recommendations – especially as they pertain to the advanced economies – have little impact. Although this is partly a consequence of more inward-looking national politics in richer countries, the Fund itself is not blameless. Related Posts VoxEU, (2019), “How the IMF can ‘raise its game’ on monetary policy advice”, …Read More