Political Economy

It looks like the ECB is about to step forward and engage in quantitative easing, if reports from the German media are to be believed. I am sceptical that the ECB will follow through on this given political pressure in the euro zone against…

In the video below, Bill Black argues that the Obama Administration, following in its tradition of not bringing forward criminal prosecutions, decided not to prosecute Goldman Sachs. Bethany McLean argues the other side. The host, Maria…

Simply cutting the deficit back and cleaning up bank balance sheets won’t get the economy back to growth. Indeed this habit of continually getting behind the curve, and trying vainly now that the economy is spiralling almost out of control…

And going beyond April, the political arithmetic of a post Monti government looks complicated, making the kind of stability needed to advance what the population may well see as “harsh” reforms unlikely. In other words, as Monti says, when…

While the ECB may certainly now buy as many peripheral bonds as it wishes if it deems convertibility risk to be a real issue money is already trickling into cash strapped peripheral economies through the arcane tool of emergency liquidity…

A key negative side effect of persistently low rates on households is the delay of retirement. This inability of many Americans to retire on their savings because of low rates is keeping them in the workforce, limiting job opportunities for…

Ireland was hit hard by the financial crisis in 2009 - before Greece and Portugal came on the scene. It took a complete recapitalization of the banking system via "bad bank" structure called Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) that…

Mario Draghi's comments earlier today showing the ECB's commitment to the euro to do whatever it takes to keep the single currency intact were greeted by most with a sense of relief. In Germany, there was consternation within the German…

The Euro is the national currency of a country that does not exist. Though there is a continent of Europe, as there is of America, there has never been a country of the United States of Europe, and there probably never will be. The Euro is…

I want to revisit Richard Koo's comments three weeks ago after his meeting with a number of German policymakers. I think they are illuminating in terms of why Euro crisis policy is as it is. And given the downturn in German economic…