Truman, E.W., (2013), “Enhancing the global financial safety net through central-bank cooperation”, www.voxeu.org, 10 September. Should we expect more global financial crises? This column argues that we should. Global financial crises are far from being a thing of the past because they are often caused by buildups of excessive domestic and foreign debt. To successfully address them and to limit negative spillovers, we need coordinated actions that prevent a contraction …Read More

Gaillard, N., (2013), “Credit rating agencies and the Eurozone Crisis: What is the value of sovereign ratings?”, www.voxeu.org, 9 September. Credit rating agencies didn’t anticipate the Eurozone Crisis and their ratings have been procyclical ever since. This column discusses research on the agencies’ recent performance. Since 2009, credit ratings have persistently lagged behind market spreads, suggesting that ratings have been more lenient with respect to Eurozone countries than generally believed. …Read More

Uhlig, Η., (2013), “Sovereign default risk and banks in Europe’s monetary union”, www.voxeu.org, 5 September. EZ banks are more exposed to their own nation’s government bonds than ever. This column argues that Eurozone members can now afford to tell their banks to diversify, but pressure from Germany, Austria, France and the ECB might be necessary. Defusing the pernicious entanglement between the Eurozone’s weak banks and weak sovereigns would reduce the …Read More

Bletzinger, Τ., Wieland, V., (2013), “Low for how long? Estimating the ECB’s “Extended Period of Time”, www.voxeu.com, 5 September. The ECB has promised to keep interest rates low for an “extended period of time”. In a broad hint to the profession, President Draghi stressed a reasonable forecast of this period could be extracted from a monetary policy reaction function. This column presents one such forecast based on published macro forecasts …Read More

De Grauwe, P., (2013), “Eurozone recession ends — but it’s too soon to celebrate”, edition.cnn.com,  18 August. Spring is in the air. That’s the feeling in Brussels and Berlin. The latest economic numbers issued by the European Commission seem to indicate that the eurozone has slowly crawledout of the recession.