Wood, R., (2013), “Europe: The Failure of Internal Devaluation”, EconoMonitor, 13 November. Quite apart from the resolution of debt and banking/credit problems, differences in competitiveness, and external account imbalances, are central considerations impacting on the success or failure of the European experiment with a common currency.  This short article looks beyond simple cross-country  comparisons of unit labour cost trends and evaluates the role that austerity policies have played in relation …Read More

Sinn, H.W., (2013), “Why Draghi was wrong to cut interest rates”, The Financial Times, 13 November. Europe fears the Japanese disease. In Japan, the gross domestic product deflator – a broad measure of the price level – fell by about 1.2 per cent a year from 1999 to 2013. Today it is as low as it was in 1980. This was a catastrophe, which Japan may only now be overcoming …Read More

Wolf, M., (2013), “Why Draghi was right to cut rates”, The Financial Times, 12 November. Τhe monetary policy of the European Central Bank has been too tight. This is shown in the fall of core annual inflation to just 0.8 per cent in the year to October 2013. The case for the monetary easing undertaken last week was overwhelming. Indeed, it was long overdue. Yet, it has been leaked, the …Read More

Buchheit, L., Weder di Mauro, B., Gelpern, A.,  Gulati, M., Panizza, U. and Zettelmeyer, J., (2013), “Revisiting sovereign bankruptcy”, VoxEU, 12 November. Sovereign-debt crises occur regularly and often violently. The recent debt crisis in Greece almost led to the collapse of the euro. Yet, there is no legally and politically recognised procedure for restructuring the debt of bankrupt sovereigns. Procedures of this type have been periodically debated – most recently, …Read More