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Lessons from Latvia Joining the Eurozone
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The Instytut Obywatelski has publised the Polish translation of my analysis on the lessons to be learned from Latvia joining the Eurozone. Here is the original English text I had written: Latvia, just like Poland, is one of the eight countries oblige...
Brandgefährliche Voodoo-Ökonomik
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Die Welt kommentiert Olli Rehns Meinung, daß Deutschland seine Wettbewerbsfähigkeit verlieren solle, damit es Europa besser geht, als brandgefährliche Voodoo-Ökonomik. Leider scheinen sie dahinter liegende wirtschaftliche Problem...
Der wahre politische Preis eines deutschen Rückzugs aus dem Euro
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Der Wirtschaftswurm hat einen Blogpost über die politische Seite eine geordneten Ausstiegs Deutschlands aus der Eurozone geschrieben. Er will hier die Möglichkeiten des von der momentanen Mediensensation Alternative für Deutschland (Af...
The Rigidity of Labour Markets and the Crisis
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Matt Yglesias put up a post about whether Labor Market Institutions Explain The Crisis. It’s an interesting subject that I’ve been working with quite closely for my thesis, his argument essentially is that until very recently Germany was...
Why the Alternative für Deutschland Simply Not Matters
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There is some buzz in the English-language media (Reuters, EU Observer, Bloomberg, Spiegel English) about reports of a new anti-euro party having been founded in Germany. This, in combination with the fact that “one in four Germans would back a...
German Inflation Preferences
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It has become a commonplace assesment in public debate to blame the German aversion to inflationary tendencies on the country’s hyperinflation of the 1920s, which in turn are believed to have led to the rise to power of Hitler. Even economists...
The Supreme Court’s Lessons for European Integration
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Here is my most recent entry for the Instytut Obywatelski’s Young Europe blog on the historical US Supreme Court’s lessons for European integration: http://www.instytutobywatelski.pl/12477/komentarze/us-supreme-courts-lesson...
Costs of Euro Adoption
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Funny how harshly time deals with economics textbooks sometimes. From: Artis and Nixson, Eds, The Economics of the European Union. 2007. “Gains from Euro adoption come at the expense of relinquishing monetary policy as a stabilization tool. [..
La Tunisie est aujourd’hui islamiste – ou pas
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C’est dommage que Le Monde ait donné à Nicolas Clinchamps la place de publier cette tribune, au mieux polémique, au pire fausse et ridicule. Je vis en Tunisie depuis un ans et demi, depuis la révolution, dans un quartier populaire, et pas...
Bangemachen … heißt das Spiel
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Uwe Jean Heuser schreibt in der Zeit (finde keine Onlineversion des Artikel) über die Eurokrise. “Bangemachen … heißt das Spiel [für ihn]. Aber Berlin sollte sich keine Angst einjagen lassen.” “Sind die Deutschen so blöd,...
Mörderisches Milieu
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Günther Nonnenmacher befasst sich für die FAZ mit der Anschlagsserie in Frankreichs Südwesten. Sein Kommentar vermischt in typisch konservatives – aus meiner in Tunesien lebenden Perspektive bin ich sogar versucht zu sagen typisch westlicher...
ECB Subsidizing Banks’ Profits = Free Market Monetary Policy at Work?
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Heiner Flassbeck in the FTD reminded me of a development that Sarkozy had hinted at – or hoped for really – back in December already (am not finding that quote). Namely, that banks are using the ECB’s new liquidity providing rules...
The Fiscal Pact and the ECJ
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As Merkozy said today negotiations on the so-called Fiscal Pact (really: International Treaty on a Reinforced Economic Union) are advancing and it is expected to be signed by March at the latest. A second draft of said treaty has been leaked meanwhil...
European Debt and the EFSF – The Numbers Game
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The Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) published a really interesting article on Friday arguing that the EFSF’s guarantees were in fact sufficient to last for all of 2012. I took a look at the numbers myself in order to check their math. The EFSF has be...
The New Europe in Speeches
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Last week saw a flurry of relevant players weighing on the debate of how to escape from the crisis trap and shape Europe going forward. Lots of interesting ideas and proposals floating around. The speech that arguably caused the biggest uproar was Ra...
ECB secondary market purchases
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I was playing around with the ECB’s SMP numbers this morning, while waiting for last week’s purchase figures to be released (8.58 bn €). The resulting overview is quite striking:...
Final Election Results for the Tunisian Constituent Assembly
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Les listes et partis Nombre de sièges Nombre total des voix % of total votes going towards seats in the Assembly % of seats in Assembly % of total voters % of total eligible voters Ennahdha 89 1,500,649 54.0% 41.0% 36.9% 19.8% CPR 29 341,549 12.3%...
Germany’s ‘Master Plan’ for Europe
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The very idea of national ‘master plan’ always smacks a little too conspiratorial for me, at best I see it as an extreme simplification of a systemic interplay of national actors working for differing goals in an international setting, es...
The Eurozone Crisis’ End Date Reconsidered
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A friend of mine raised two very relevant points in regard to my belief that this crisis ain’t going to end until 2013. There is a reason he has a much more interesting job than me after all: I think you assume that the ECB is too hawkish. I ca...
Don’t expect this to be over before 2013
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I’ve talked before about laying out why I doubt we will find a definite solution to the Eurozone crisis in my two previous posts on this subject (I, II). So, after a crazy Greek day yesterday, here goes. While the Greek Prime Minister’s a...
