De Grauwe,  Paul , Ji, Yuemei, “Are Germans really poorer than Spaniards, Italians and Greeks?”, www.voxeu.org, 16 April. A recent ECB household-wealth survey was interpreted by the media as evidence that poor Germans shouldn’t have to pay for southern Europe. This column takes a look at the numbers. Whilst it’s true that median German households are poor compared to their southern European counterparts, Germany itself is wealthy. Importantly, this wealth …Read More

Gros, Daniel, (2013), “The Meaning of Cyprus: Moving towards banking union?” CEPS, 8 April. While acknowledging that Cyprus is too small to matter for global financial markets, this Commentary finds that its case could turn out to become a very important precedent for the way European policy-makers deal with future banking problems and the plans for a ‘banking union’.

Dell’ Ariccia, Giovanni, Goyal, Rishi, Koeva-Brooks, Petya, Tressel, Thierry, (2013) “A banking union for the Eurozone”, www.voxeu.org , 5 April. The crisis has highlighted the need for, and difficulties with, a Eurozone banking union. This column argues that, to make a union, you need three crucial ingredients: common supervision, a single resolution mechanism, and common safety nets. The power to control and the resources to rescue must work in parallel. …Read More

Aslund, Anders, (2013), “The Euro Crisis after Cyprus: What We Have Learned”, The Peterson Institute for International Economics, 3 April. Just as suddenly as it arose, the Cyprus financial crisis has passed by. The banks have opened and so has the stock market without undue panic. A few steps remain in the euro crisis, but this crisis is abating, and however messily Europe has handled it. Today, the questions are what …Read More

Pisani-Ferry, Jean, (2013), “The Politics of Moral Hazard”, www.project-syndicate.org, 30 March. It is an old and never-ending contest. On one side are the moral-hazard scolds, claiming that one of the major responsibilities confronting policymakers is to establish incentives that demonstrate that imprudent behavior does not pay. On the other side are the partisans of financial stability, for whom confidence in the financial system is too precious to be endangered, even …Read More

Kirkegaard, Jacob, (2013), “Did Cyprus Set a Dangerous Precedent? Some Further Thoughts”, The Peterson Institute for International Economics, 29 March. The precedent of imposing losses on uninsured depositors in Laiki Bank and the Bank of Cyprus was a sound one, but that does not mean it will be a widely used one in the euro area—or that it puts the entire euro area banking system at risk of depositor runs. …Read More

Boone, Laurence, Céline, Renucci, Ruben Segura-Cayuela, (2013), ”Eurozone: Looking for growth”, www.voxeu.org, 25 March. What happens after the crisis ends? This column estimates the long-term effects of the current cyclical downturn on Eurozone economies. In the absence of any real impetus for bold reform, estimates show that the damage will indeed be long lasting, permanently impairing growth for an ageing population that requires higher growth capacity more than ever before.

Véron, Nicolas, (2013), “Europe’s Cyprus blunder and its consequences”, www.voxeu.org, 25 March. The Monday morning Eurozone Cyprus bailout is now public, although details are scant. This column argues that this package cancels out some of the mistakes in last week’s package. Last week, the Troika should have vetoed the small-deposit tax and prepared a plan B for the Cypriot parliament’s rejection. Avoiding the risky scenario of a Cyprus exit will …Read More

Pop,Valentina, (2013), “Cyprus ‘business model’ was no mystery to EU”, EUobserver.com, 22 March. Be it the German finance minister, European Central Bank (ECB) officials or the head of the Eurogroup – they all agree on one thing: Cyprus must scrap its “unsustainable business model” based on low taxes and attracting large amounts of bank deposits from abroad, mainly Russia. The Cypriot banking sector, relying largely on deposits, is more than …Read More

Beck, Thorsten, (2013), “Cyprus: What are the alternatives?”, www,voxeu.org, 22 March. Cypriot banks urgently need restructuring and downsizing, but a functioning financial system is necessary to handle Cyprus’s transformation to an economic model not based on an oversized banking sector. This column argues that splitting the Cypriot banking system into a bad ‘legacy’ part and a good forward-looking part seems the only feasible and effective solution to resolve the current …Read More