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Lessons for the euro from early US monetary and financial history

Frieden, Jeffry, (2016), “Lessons for the euro from early US monetary and financial history”, Bruegel Essay, 25 May Europe’s central goal for several decades has been to create an economic union that can provide monetary and financial stability. This goal is often compared to the long-standing monetary union that is the United States. Easy celebration of the successful American union ignores the fact that it took an extremely long time to …Read More

The European Single Market: A game changer for economic integration

Fournier, Jean-Marc, (2016), “The European Single Market: A game changer for economic integration”, Voxeu, 26 May The limits of the European Single Market have often been highlighted. This column argues that although implicit barriers remain, the Single Market has delivered substantial benefits to member countries. New empirical evidence is presented of the trade and FDI gains that Central and Eastern European countries have enjoyed since joining the Single Market. On top of …Read More

Rediscovering Fiscal Policy at the G7

Frankel, Jeffrey, (2016), “Rediscovering Fiscal Policy at the G7”, Project Syndicate, 24 May As G7 leaders convene in Ise-Shima, Japan, the global economy’s fragility is a top concern. But instead of focusing on currency wars, the leaders of the major developed economies should be discussing fiscal policy, which under current conditions would be a more powerful tool than monetary policy for boosting economic activity. After all, today, unlike in normal times, …Read More

The Business Models and Economics of Peer-to-Peer Lending

Alistair Milne, Paul Parboteeah, (2016), “The Business Models and Economics of Peer-to-Peer Lending”, ECRI Researcb Report No. 17, May This paper reviews peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, its development in the UK and other countries, and assesses the business and economic policy issues surrounding this new form of intermediation. P2P platform technology allows direct matching of borrowers’ and lenders’ diversification over a large number of borrowers without the loans having to be …Read More

The False Promise of Negative Interest Rates

Robert Skidelsky, (2016), “The False Promise of Negative Interest Rates”, Project Syndicate, 24 May Negative interest rates are simply the latest fruitless effort since the 2008 global financial crisis to revive economies by monetary measures. When cutting interest rates to historically low levels failed to revive growth, central banks took to so-called quantitative easing: injecting liquidity into economies by buying long-term government and other bonds. It did some good, but mostly …Read More

Can Spain break the curse of the periphery? The upcoming Spanish election and what it means for Europe

Miroslav Beblavý, (2016), “Can Spain break the curse of the periphery? The upcoming Spanish election and what it means for Europe”, CEPS Essay No 24, 23 May In this CEPS Essay, Miroslav Beblavý takes stock of the changing situation in Spanish politics one month before the early elections, which are expected to take place on June 26th in the hope that a new government can finally be formed. He finds …Read More

Helicopter money: The illusion of a free lunch

Claudio Borio, Piti Disyatat, Anna Zabai,(2016), “Helicopter money: The illusion of a free lunch”, Voxeu, 24 May As central banks have been testing the limits of unconventional monetary policies, many observers have started to consider more radical options. One that has been gaining ground is that of ‘helicopter money’ (Friedman 1969) or, more soberly described, ‘overt money finance’ of government deficits (Turner 2015). Proponents see it as a sure-fire way …Read More

Core and periphery: different approaches to unconventional monetary policy

Dabrowski, Marek, (2016), “Core and periphery: different approaches to unconventional monetary policy “, Bruegel, 24 May Ιn the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, central banks in a number of advanced economies rapidly expanded their reserve (base) money and resorted to various unconventional monetary policy measures. Quantitative easing (QE), a massive purchase of securities including Treasury bonds, has played a prominent role in this new toolkit. These new practices have …Read More

A Debt Agenda for the G7

Feldstein, Martin, (2016), ” A Debt Agenda for the G7″, Project Syndicate, 23 May On May 26-27, the heads of the Group of Seven leading industrial countries will gather in Japan to discuss common security and economic problems. A major common problem that deserves their attention is the unsustainable increase in the major developed countries’ national debt. Failure to address the explosion of government borrowing will have adverse effects on the …Read More

The European Deposit Insurance Scheme

Guntram B. Wolff, (2016), “The European Deposit Insurance Scheme”,Bruegel, 23 May It is welcome that the European Union and the euro area in particular discuss the topic of a European deposit insurance. In fact, to complete banking union, three pillars are indispensable: banking supervision, bank resolution and deposit insurance. In terms of institution building, I would argue that supervision is now fully in place while the European Resolution Mechanism with its …Read More