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German elections: a Caribbean hurricane for Europe?

September 25, 2017 by andrew36 Leave a Comment

The Caribbean has been in the news lately for a succession of damaging hurricanes. Yesterday’s German elections seem almost certain to lead to a so-called Jamaica coalition between Mrs. Merkel’s conservatives (CDU/CSU), the liberal FDP and the Greens. (The party colours, black, yellow, green, are those of the island’s national flag). Is Europe in for stormy times? It certainly looks like it.

The debate on reforming the EU and especially the Euro Area is at a critical phase. There has been a flurry of proposals and reflection papers from the EU Commission and think-tanks. Jean-Claude Juncker’s recent State of the EU speech held out the prospect of a push towards deepening EMU. The new French President, Emmanuel Macron, has embarked on domestic reforms, part of the rationale of which is to open up space for Euro Area governance reforms. A speech on this issue is scheduled for this week. Everyone has been waiting for the German elections.

And now this. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Analysis Tagged With: CDU/CSU, ECB, economic policy, elections, Euro Area, FDP, Germany, Jamaica, Juncker, Macron, Merkel, Schäuble, SDP, Weidmann

The IMF on Greek debt – redefining chutzpah?

May 24, 2016 by andrew36 3 Comments

A definition of chutzpah is murdering your parents and then claiming social benefits as an orphan. It is not widely recognised, but the IMF illustrates similar brazenness in the current debate on Greece’s debt burden.

While not exactly pretending to be an orphan, the IMF is currently getting a lot of sympathy for its position: it has come out increasingly strongly in favour of debt relief for Greece. On realistic assumptions the debt burden is unsustainable. The country can only recover if there is substantial debt relief. Its most recent debt sustainability analysis claims it was forced to provide loans when the euro crisis broke, alongside European institutions, against its better judgement, but now only massive debt relief will work.

Its realism has been welcomed, and contrasted favourably with the EU (and its German paymasters), which against all reason are insisting on more-or-less full repayment of past loans. In so doing the IMF has been feted by Greek commentators, the many EU citizens/taxpayers sympathetic to the plight of Greek citizens, and much informed economics commentary.

One certainly does not need to think of the IMF as a murderer. But one should be aware of three things.  First the IMF was not simply an innocent [Read more…]

Filed Under: Analysis Tagged With: debt sustainability, ECB, ESM, Greece, IMF, inflation, interest rates, primary balance

Same ECB medicine, higher dosage – good but more needed

March 12, 2016 by andrew36 Leave a Comment

The ECB has announced a further expansionary shift by beefing up a range of existing policy instruments. Barring unexpected positive shocks this will not be enough to break out of a deflationary environment and convincingly underpin growth and a rapid reduction in unemployment. For that to happen fiscal policy must turn expansionary and/or the ECB must cast caution to the winds and adopt new tools. At the press conference following the policy announcement ECB President Draghi gave a tantalizing glimpse that new tools may indeed be on the way: we may yet see monetary financing of fiscal policy, or helicopter money as it is popularly known. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Analysis Tagged With: ECB, fiscal policy, helicopter money, inflation, interest rates, Mario Draghi, monetary financing, nominal GDP, QE

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  1. Mainly macro (Simon Wren-Lewis)
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