The US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have made clear that they intend to roll back quantitative easing by reducing their bond holdings. But the other driver of central banks’ balance-sheet expansion for the past 15 years – the provision of abundant reserves to the financial sector – remains up for debate. Read […]
In the coming months, highly consequential policy decisions (or their absence) in systemically critical parts of the global economy will be revealed, with significant effects on growth rates, asset prices, and overall confidence. Read Here – Project Syndicate
There is a new German question. It is this: Can Europe’s most powerful country lead the way in building both a sustainable, internationally competitive eurozone and a strong, internationally credible European Union? Germany’s difficulties in responding convincingly to this challenge are partly the result of earlier German questions and the solutions found to them. Read […]
For years, European leaders have been trying to put a stop to the debt crisis that is tearing Southern Europe apart. It might be time to change strategy since little progress has been made. Read Here – Der Spiegel
As evidence mounts that a mid-year slowdown is taking place in the world economy, the next few days will offer a clearer glimpse of how that will impinge on policymaking and buoyant financial markets. Read Here – Reuters
Russia recently turned down a deal to save Cyprus’ banking sector. At first glance, the move looked like a huge strategic blunder. In fact, a credible offer was never on the table and Moscow needs no accord to secure its dominance on the island. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
Since the second half of 2012, financial markets have recovered strongly worldwide. Indeed, in the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average reached an all-time high in early March, having risen by close to 9% since September. In Europe, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s “guns of August” turned out to be remarkably effective….But this financial market […]
The euro crisis has revolutionised politics across Europe. Established political parties are fighting for their lives; countries that thought of themselves as part of the European core are finding themselves on the periphery; and a huge gulf has emerged in the core of Europe. What we are witnessing, as the euro crisis enters its third […]
The world is awash in easy money, with consequences that are starting to worry some central bankers and business leaders at the DavosWorld Economic Forum (WEF), though so far inflation fears seem overdone. With developed world government finances constrained by huge debts and deficits, central banks have pumped trillions of dollars into the system to try to […]
Maybe, just maybe, the worst of the euro crisis is over. Business and consumer confidence is rising across the Continent, sovereign bond yields are falling, and capital flight from its weakest economies is easing. Talk of an imminent breakup of the currency union has all but disappeared. Even Greece, whose debt hemorrhage plunged the euro zone into […]
looking beyond borders 