Ferdinando Giugliano,(2017), “Europe Needs a Way to Prevent the Next Greek-Style Debt Crisis”, BloombergView, 29 November If there was ever a textbook example of how not to handle a sovereign debt crisis, it was Greece. Nearly a decade since Athens first asked for help from its euro zone partners and the International Monetary Fund, the Greek economy is still struggling to recover. Even after a steep restructuring, sovereign debt remains unsustainable. …Read More

European Central Bank, (2017), “Eurosystem oversight report 2016”,  November The safety and efficiency of financial market infrastructures (FMIs) are critical for the proper functioning of financial markets and the economy more generally. In particular, the safety aspect of such payment, clearing and settlement systems has been a key focus for central bank overseers and other authorities in recent years, at both euro area level and beyond. Significant effort has been …Read More

Henri Maurer, Sascha Keweloh, (2017), “Quality enhancements in Government Finance Statistics since the introduction of the euro”,  European Central Bank, Statistics Paper Series, No 26 / November 2017 This paper reviews the development of the quality of the main fiscal data released through the Excessive Deficit Procedures (EDP) since the euro’s introduction. As such, this paper presents the outcome of various econometric tests based on all the vintages of the annual main …Read More

European Investment Bank, (2017), “From recovery to sustainable growth”, Investment Report 2017/2018 The Investment Report is designed to serve as a monitoring tool providing a comprehensive overview of the developments and drivers of investment and its finance in the EU. It combines an analysis and understanding of key market trends and developments with a more in-depth thematic focus, which this year is devoted to the impact of financial constraints on investment dynamics. A new …Read More

Henk Esselink, Lola Hernández, (2017), “The use of cash by households in the euro area”, European Central Bank, Occasional Paper Series, No 201 / November 2017 Although euro banknotes and coins have been in circulation for fifteen years, not much is known about the actual use of cash by households. This paper presents an estimation of the number and value of cash transactions in all 19 euro area countries in 2016, based on survey results. It …Read More

Stefano Micossi, (2017), “A Blueprint for Completing the Banking Union”, CEPS Policy Insights No 2017/42, November Completing the banking union is an urgent project facing the EU, given the Εurozone’s continued vulnerability to idiosyncratic liquidity shocks to national banking systems. The proposed changes to the European deposit insurance scheme (EDIS) under consideration by the European Commission could open the way to a satisfactory compromise between the twin needs to reduce …Read More

Alois Stoger, Nicolas Schmit, (2017), “Putting Europe’s Long-Term Unemployed Back to Work”, Project Syndicate, 24 November Across the European Union, millions of people who are willing and able to work have been unemployed for a year or longer, at great cost to social cohesion and political stability. If the EU is serious about stopping the rise of populism, it will need to do more to ensure that labor markets are …Read More

Daniel Gros, (2017), “Banks as buyers of last resort for government bonds”, VoxEU, 27 November A key remaining issue for the completion of the Banking Union is the concentrated exposure of banks in many countries to their own sovereign. This column argues that the belief that banks should be allowed to buy large amounts of their own sovereign so they can stabilise the market in a crisis is mistaken for …Read More

John Loyd, (2017), “Commentary: What Merkel’s political woes mean for the EU”, Reuters, 24 Νovember The latest reason for pessimism is Germany, which from being the undisputed leader of Europe has suddenly descended to being the basket case. The latest blow: Angela Merkel’s struggle to keep control of the government after her struggle to cobble together a new ruling coalition collapsed last weekend. Relevant Posts Philippe Legrain, (2017), «The Twilight …Read More

Dan Andrews, Filippos Petroulakis, (2017), “Breaking the Shackles Zombie Firms, Weak Banks and Depressed Restructuring in Europe”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 20 November This paper explores the connection between “zombie” firms (firms that would typically exit in a competitive market) and bank health and the consequences for aggregate productivity in 11 European countries. Controlling for cyclical effects, the results show that zombie firms are more likely to be connected to weak …Read More