Latest posts
EU Commission proposes revolution in euro area governance
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Today, the European Commission presented further ideas for the reform of economic governance in the EU and EMU. The package contains six legislative proposals, including a second reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and macro-economic coordi...
Assessing options for Greece
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After weeks of contradictory statements on the question how to handle Greece, the Heads of State and Government of the EU member states used their informal European Council meeting on February 11th for a strong political signal that aimed at ca...
European plans for macroprudential supervisison: Will it work?
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I have been asked to testify in front of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on the planned financial supervisory structure in the European Union and I had my hearing in Brussels last week. Here is my statement: D...
Greece: preventing market-driven sovereign default by strong conditionality
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The Greek case is moving markets – and minds. Over the last few weeks, for instance the German government including Angela Merkel has become a strong proponent of economic policy coordination in the Eurozone. Not only financial markets are nerv...
Financial Market Supervision: Now comes the European Parliament’s hour
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Yesterday’s decision by the Ecofin to water down the Commission’s proposal on the reform of the European Financial Market supervision to make it little more than a teethless tiger is deplorable. But the last word is not spoken – the...
German public finances: Accounting tricks in conflict with the SGP
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According to recent news reports, the new German coaliton government has found a nice trick which would allow them to cut taxes in the years from 2011 onwards without having to cut spending nor having to borrow more at that time. Sounds too good to b...
An FDP impulse on Germany’s European policy under a likely centre-right coalition?
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The probable junior partner in Germany’s new coalition, the liberal FDP, on Sunday reached a historically strong result with around 14.6 percent (estimate of 11:54 p.m.) of the votes. For the first time in eleven years, it is set to j...
EMU needs an external stability pact
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In our new contribution for Project Syndicate, we argue that the European Monetary Union needs a new stability pact which limits not government budgets, but imbalances in the current accounts of the member states. In such a pact, both deficit and sur...
German Economic Policy after the Election: No help from Germany towards global economic rebalancing
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In a new publication for the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., I argue that no matter who is going to win the election in Germany in September, Germany will continue to be a...
The Economic Consequences of the Grand Coalition in Germany
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Last week, the Grand Coalition made sure that their legacy in Germany's economic policy stance will be far beyond the next election on September 27, 2008. After the Bundestag had already voted to amend the constitution and to include a sweeping b...
The SPE’s smart green growth and jobs
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Regarding the SPE’s performance in the European elections, a recurrent question was why the Socialists/Social Democrats did not reach better scores: Why hasn’t the left been able to capitalise on the shift in public attitudes against cons...
The EPP on economic governance
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We know how limited the influence of the European Parliament (EP) is in the shaping of the EU’s economic policy and in managing the current financial and economic crisis. And we also know that what parties say before parliamentary elections is...
Reading Steinmeier on EMU
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The German Foreign Secretary and social democratic candidate for the Chancellors office in the next general elections in September 2009 has finally formulated some ideas on the future of Eurozone governance. Unexpected by many who had given up hope t...
Pitfalls on the Way to Success: Obama Faces Many Tough Policy Choices
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Fifth part of our series on the winners and losers of the current crisis If there was someone profiting from the current economic and financial crisis it must be Barack Obama, the new American president, right? The polls before the elections showed c...
Getting around the No-Bail-Out-Clause
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For a few weeks now, the debate about whether a bail out of an EMU country is a likely option has accelerated. A few days after we had argued in a syndicated piece for Project Syndicate which was printed by a number of papers across the wor...
Mr Steinbrück on his path into history books
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Fourth part of our series on the winners and losers of the current crisis Before the financial crisis struck, the German finance minister Peer Steinbrück had a very ambitious goal. He wanted to enter history books as the finance minister who man...
On the rise: The euro’s attraction for non-EMU members
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Third part of our series on the winners and losers of the current crisis Despite certain doubts about the Eurozone's ability to tackle the crisis, the attraction of the Euro as a "safe haven" in an era of turbulence has risen considerably...
The Lisbon Treaty - A surprising winner from the financial crisis?
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Second part of our series on the winners and losers of the current crisis Only a few months ago, most observers would have been very sceptical whether the Lisbon Treaty could be saved with a second Irish referendum. While now property pric...
Britain and the financial crisis: Exit Brown stage left?
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First part of our series on the winners and losers of the current crisis Continental watchers of British politics have been surprised by the recent rehabilitation of the British Prime Minister. During the summer recess, the UK media h...
New Eurozone Watch series: Winners and losers of the current economic crisis
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With the world economy tumbling ever deeper into the economic abyss, it is exceedingly hard to find a single positive aspect of the crisis. Given the speed and momentum the downturn has reached, no sector of the economy seems immune to the fall-out o...
