The expansionary monetary policy of the ECB has failed to achieve the desired inflation target in Europe. Could quantitative easing be the solution to their problems? More ...
Wage restraint can increase a country's international price competiveness. Can it help the crisis ridden southern EU countries? Find out in this blogpost. More ...
In a recent blog post we showed that the upturn of the German economy between 2000 and 2009 was primarily due to a restrictive wage policy. Our newest study seeks to answer the question whether this strategy could work for the crisis-ridden southern European countries. We look at three different wage-setting scenarios: Reference […] More ...
This blogpost examines both, the paths that let Greece and Portugal into the crisis, as well as the potential ways out and what challenges lay still ahead for the two countries. More ...
At Sunday's summit Greece's fate will likely be decided. While in Germany voices supporting a Grexit have become louder over the last weeks, the German attitude may differ from public opinions in other EU member states. Therefore, today we want to take a closer look at the people’s opinion towards the Greek debt problem throughout Europe. More ...
In the wake of the 2001 Argentine financial crisis and subsequent default, firms specializing in distressed sovereign debt purchased defaulted Argentine bonds at steep discounts with the explicit intent of subsequently litigating for payment of full face value plus interest. These firms have achieved international notoriety stemming from their recent legal victories against the government of Argentina, but the strategy of investing in distressed bonds and resisting restructuring is by no means original. In fact, holdout funds have been developing, improving and employing different strategies for roughly three decades. More ...
To address Argentina’s economic malaise—and to fully close the door on the 2001 crisis—the next government would need to address subsidies, return the keys to the Central Bank, and come to an agreement with the disdained holdout firms. These are neither easy nor popular measures for a new and untested government. Argentines may say they want change now, but will they reach for the casserole pans if their energy bills spike? More ...
Since the advent of the European sovereign debt crisis German citizens have voiced mounting criticism of the European Monetary Union and of the euro. However, German economic growth and indeed the German labour market both benefit to a considerable extent from the euro. More ...
In this publication, Bertelsmann Foundation Project Manager Samuel George writes that the Latin American debt crises of 1982-1989 and 2001-2002 offer valuable lessons for the eurozone as it confronts the current fiscal and debt crisis afflicting a number of its member states. More ...
While Greece leaving the European Monetary Union would in and of itself have a relatively minor effect on the world economy, such a move could, however, undermine investor confidence in the Portuguese, Spanish and Italian capital markets. More ...
