Who’s afraid of sovereign bonds?
Merler, Silvia, Pisani-Ferry, Jean. The crisis has underlined the strong interdependence between the euro-area banking and sovereign crises. To understand the role domestic banks have played in holding sovereign debt, a breakdown of government debt by holding sectors is required. The data shows that at the start of the crisis, most continental euro-area countries were characterised […]
Austerity under Attack
Gros, Daniel. Europe seems to be obsessed with austerity. Country after country is being forced by either the financial markets or the European Union to start cutting its public-sector deficit. And, as if this were not enough, 25 of the 27 EU member states have just agreed on a new treaty (called a “fiscal compact”) […]
What Europe might look like without the Eurozone and EU
Frey, Bruno. What will happen if the euro collapses? For many people, the answer is unmitigated disaster. But this column argues that to identify the euro, the EU, and Europe as one, as many politicians like to do, is totally misleading. A possible demise of the euro and the EU can be seen as a […]
A blueprint for Germany to save the eurozone
Zoellick, Robert. For almost 60 years, Germans have maintained that it is their responsibility to participate in a modern Europe. Today, Germany’s responsibility is to lead in saving that Europe. This shift is not easy for Germans, who have often been urged to step forward, only then to be criticised for aggressiveness. But no other […]
The debt challenge in Europe
Ahearne, Alan, Wolff, Guntram. The euro area faces a double challenge: debt overhang and the need for price adjustment. This paper reviews the debt challenges in the household and corporate sectors and maps out some policy options. In particular, we document the increase in private debt prior to the crisis and consider how the corporate […]
The Austerity Debacle
Krugman, Paul. Last week the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a British think tank, released a startling chart comparing the current slump with past recessions and recoveries. It turns out that by one important measure — changes in real G.D.P. since the recession began — Britain is doing worse this time than it […]
Eurozone Problems
Krugman, Paul. I’m giving a talk in Paris tomorrow. Here are some slides; they won’t come as a shock to regular readers, but it may be useful to see them all in one place. Πηγή: The New York Times πλήρες κείμενο
Europe’s three-dimensional crisis
Brown, Gordon. In the rush to define Europe’s problems as fiscal, our deep-seated banking and competitiveness problems have been largely ignored. In the search for a simple, one-dimensional answer – austerity and, if that fails, more austerity – to what is a three-dimensional crisis, Europe’s leaders are failing to grasp the profound historical forces now […]
The coming resolution of the European crisis
Bergsten, Rfed, Kirkegaard, Jacob Funk. Policy reactions to the Eurozone crisis are seen by many as short-sighted, incoherent, and driven by political expediency. This column disagrees. What we are seeing is a game of chicken among the key political and economic powers in Europe. As the crash looms ever closer, the right deals will be […]
Getting up to Speed on the Financial Crisis: A One-Weekend-Reader’s Guide
Gorton, Gary, Metrick, Andrew. All economists should be conversant with “what happened?” during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. We select and summarize 16 documents, including academic papers and reports from regulatory and international agencies. This reading list covers the key facts and mechanisms in the build-up of risk, the panics in short-term-debt markets, the policy reactions, […]