“The MFF recovery plan breaks with a fundamental taboo” By Jorge Núñez Ferrer, courtesy of CEPS The European Commission has presented a proposal to amend the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-27 of the EU budget – integrating a recovery plan as a post-Covid response. Many elements of the plan are clearly in line with the […]
Tag: ECB
With emergency measures, European fiscal divide deepens
“ECB calls for European Integration via a Common Fiscal Policy Response” By Gordon Kerr, Cavin O’Driscoll and Enrico Colombatto, courtesy of IREF ECB President Lagarde announced a keenly awaited new policy statement on April 30th. There was to be no increase to the Euros 750 billion Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), but the economic […]
EU Budget: Transfers or low-interest loans?
“Ten questions and answers on the Franco-German proposal” By Jürgen Matthes, courtesy of IW Koeln Germany and France have proposed a European Recovery Fund of €500 billion, based on large loans taken out by the EU to be transferred exclusively as grants to EU member states particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The legal […]
Why German banking rules are different
“Banking regulation in the Euro Area: Germany is different” By Nicolas Véron, courtesy of the Bruegel Institute Despite progress in recent years towards a single banking policy framework in the euro area – a banking union – much of the German banking system has remained partly sheltered from uniform rules and disciplines that now […]
IMF should double funds to $2T, offer debt moratorium for COVID-19 crisis response
“COVID19: Increase in IMF resources and debt moratorium urgently needed” By Cristoph Trebesch and Rolf J. Langhammer, courtesy of IfW Kiel Never in its 75-year history has the IMF been more important for global financial and economic stability than now in the corona pandemic. Already 90 countries have applied for credit assistance in […]
What’s behind euro-area housing boom… and is a crash coming?
“Recent euro-area house price increases are dissimilar to earlier housing booms” By Zsolt Darvas, Marta Domínguez-Jiménez, and Guntram B. Wolf, courtesy of the Bruegel Institute Rapid house price increases are good for homeowners and bad for people wishing to buy. They could also be bad for the economy as a whole if there […]
In favor of climate-based stress tests for banks
“Climate risks to European banks: a new era of stress tests” By Alexander Lehmann, courtesy of the Bruegel Institute The release of a proposed methodology for assessing climate risks within UK banks and insurers by the Bank of England just before Christmas has fueled calls for a similar ‘climate stress test’ for European […]
Europe needs a money laundering czar to lead crackdown
“A European anti–money laundering supervisor: From vision to legislation” By Nicolas Véron and Joshua Kirschenbaum, courtesy of the Bruegel Institute The European Union is moving toward implementing a policy to strengthen anti–money laundering (AML) supervision across its Single Market, namely enforcing requirements on banks and other firms to ensure they do not facilitate […]
Don’t loosen bank rules for Green New Deal
“European green finance is expanding, a discount on bank capital would discredit it” By Alexander Lehmann, courtesy of the Bruegel Institute The Commission’s ‘European Green Deal’ sets out massive investment needs in a variety of areas, amounting to potentially 1.5 per cent of the EU’s annual GDP. If these targets are to be […]
Christine Lagarde at the ECB: chronicle of a failure foretold
By Etienne Chaumeton, courtesy of IREF In economics, the future is necessarily uncertain, because it is subject to the decisions of a multitude of individual actions. The recent arrival of Christine Lagarde to the presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB) on November 1, 2019, however, seems to mark the first stage of […]