Update on Economic and Monetary Developments, Economic Bulletin Issue 1/2015

6 February, 2015

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ECB (2015) Update on Economic and Monetary Developments, Economic Bulletin Issue 1/2015, European Central Bank, February. Summary The recent decline in oil prices is supporting the global economic recovery. Nevertheless, the recovery remains gradual and economic developments vary across regions. Growth in the United States remains robust, momentum is slowing in China, and activity in Japan has not regained traction. Economic conditions in Russia have deteriorated further, but spillovers …Read More

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Why did Britain join the EU? A new insight from economic history

3 February, 2015

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Campos, F. N. & Coricelli, F. (2015) “Why did Britain join the EU? A new insight from economic history“, VoxEU Organisation, 03 February. Britain eschewed EU membership in the late 1950s but changed its mind in the early 1960s, only to be rebuffed by Charles de Gaulle. Membership came only in the early 1970s. This column argues that, among others, Britain joined the EU as a way to avoid …Read More

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We already have a simple and conventional story to explain the weak recovery

30 January, 2015

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Wren-Lewis, S. (2015) “We already have a simple and conventional story to explain the weak recovery“, VoxEU Organisation, 30 Ιανουαρίου. The anaemic recovery from the Global Crisis and the downward trend in real interest rates since 1980 have revived interest in the idea of secular stagnation. This column argues that if the US, UK, and Eurozone had not pursued contractionary fiscal policies from 2010 onwards, the recovery would not …Read More

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Secular stagnation in the Eurozone

30 January, 2015

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De Grauwe, P. (2015) “Secular stagnation in the Eurozone“, VoxEU Organisation, 30 January. Nowhere in the developed world is the secular stagnation more visible than in the Eurozone. This column explains this phenomenon with asymmetric external balances within the Eurozone. Southern counties had accumulated current-account deficits and became debtors when the Crisis hit, whereas the northern ones became creditors. The burden of the adjustments has been borne almost exclusively …Read More

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Who’s (still) exposed to Greece? – a first trace of normalisation and resume in confidence since 2013, which the present political turmoil risks to revert

30 January, 2015

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Merler, S. (2015) “Who’s (still) exposed to Greece? – a first trace of normalisation and resume in confidence since 2013, which the present political turmoil risks to revert“, Bruegel Institute, 29 January. Since the start of the crisis, the structure of Greek debt has changed considerably (almost 80 percent of government financial liabilities are now accounted for by loans, against slightly less than 20 percent back in 2008). At the same …Read More

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Grexit 2015: A primer

23 January, 2015

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Gros, Daniel, (2015), “Grexit 2015: A primer”, CEPS Commentaries, 23 January. In the run-up to the Greek elections on January 25th and the subsequent renegotiation of the country’s economic adjustment programme with the troika, Daniel Gros writes in this Commentary that “nobody officially wants Grexit”: not Syriza, which wants Greece to stay in the euro. It is ‘only’ asking for a reduction in Greece’s official debt and an end to …Read More

Library » EU » Greece » Economy » Opinion Articles

The ECB has fired its bazooka

23 January, 2015

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Wolff, Guntram, Merler, Silvia, (2015), “The ECB has fired its bazooka” , Bruegel, 23 January. The ECB announced today an expansion of its asset purchases, to include securities issued by European agencies and institutions, as well as central government in the euro area. Purchases are intended to be continued until at least September 2016 and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of …Read More

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The ECB’s New Macroeconomic Realism

23 January, 2015

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Jeffrey D. Sachs, (2015), “The ECB’s New Macroeconomic Realism”, Project Syndicate, 23 January. The European Central Bank has finally launched a policy of quantitative easing (QE). The key question at this stage is whether Germany will give the ECB the freedom of maneuver needed to carry out this monetary expansion with sufficient boldness. Though QE cannot produce long-term growth, it can do much to end the ongoing recession that has …Read More

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Reserves for everyone – towards a new monetary regime?

21 January, 2015

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Niepelt, D. (2015) “Reserves for everyone – towards a new monetary regime?“, VoxEU Organisation, 21 January. Recent experience with the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates, and the use of high-denomination notes by criminals and tax evaders, have led to revived proposals to phase out cash. This column argues that abolishing cash may be neither necessary nor sufficient to overcome the zero lower bound problem, and would severely …Read More

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Will e-commerce make prices more flexible?

21 January, 2015

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Gorodnichenko, Υ., Talavera, Ο. & Sheremirov, S. (2015) “Will e-commerce make prices more flexible?, VoxEU Organisation, 21 January. An increasing share of purchases are made online where price changes are very cheap. This column presents new evidence on price dispersions and frictions using novel data from an online shopping platform from the US and the UK. Online prices are more flexible than prices in conventional stores but still sticky. …Read More

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