De Grauwe, Paul, (2012), ‘To stabilize the Eurozone, the ECB must set aside its fears and start buying governments’ bonds’, blogs.lse.ac.uk, 31 July. Government bond markets in Europe remain volatile, with Spanish and Italian bond rates at near unsustainable levels. Paul De Grauwe argues that the only institution that can stabilize these markets by buying government bonds is the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB must now overcome its risk averse nature …Read More

Wyplosz, Charles, (2012), ‘Thanks to the ECB’, www.voxeu.org, 30 July. Financial markets once again pushed Eurozone leaders to act. European Central Bank President Draghi recently promised to “do whatever it takes”. This column argues that Draghi made an implicit commitment to act as lender of last resort to Eurozone governments. This means optimism may be justified – if only because it suggests that the Eurozone has a great central banker …Read More

Sinn, Hans Werner, (2012), “The European Banking Union?”, www.project-syndicate.org, 13 June. Increasingly, one hears predictions that the euro will go the way of the gold standard in the 1930’s. And, increasingly, the reasoning behind such forecasts seems persuasive. But does that mean that the euro doomsayers are right?  

Sinn, Hans Werner, (2012), ‘The European Banking Union?’, www.project-syndicate.org, 13 June. In blatant violation of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Commission has come forward with one bailout plan after another for Europe’s distressed economies. Now it wants to socialize not only government debt by introducing Eurobonds, but also banking debt by proclaiming a “banking union.”