debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
A recent speech delivered by Mr Asmussen (Executive Director of the ECB) at a seminar organised by the IIEA in Dublin (The Irish Case From An ECB Perspective), gives powerful (though unintended) grounds for a ‘no’ vote in the forthcoming referendum. Mr Asmussen emphasised that from an ECB perspective it was of the ‘utmost importance’ [...]
Since last November, the European Central Bank, under its new president, Mario Draghi, has reduced its policy rates and undertaken two injections of more than €1 trillion of liquidity into the eurozone banking system. This led to a temporary reduction in the financial strains confronting the debt endangered countries on the eurozone’s periphery (Greece, Spain, [...]
Last December, with Europe’s financial system on the brink of disaster, the European Central Bank stunned the markets with an unprecedented intervention, offering banks across the eurozone essentially unlimited liquidity against any and all collateral for an exceptional period of three years. The ECB’s surprise liquidity operation put the continent’s crisis on hold. But now, [...]
Far from abating, the euro crisis has taken a turn for the worse in recent months. The European Central Bank managed to relieve an incipient credit crunch through its long-term refinancing operation (LTRO), which lent over a trillion euros to eurozone banks at one percent. This brought considerable relief to financial markets, and the resulting [...]
Unemployment in Europe continues its inexorable climb upward. Eurostat reported today that in February 17.13 million people were unemployed in the euro area and 24.55 million in the EU27. New records, as you can see from Eurostat’s own chart below. A rather clearer picture of the policy-making disaster that this represents emerges [...]
The euro area finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen have agreed on the size of the firewall, that is the funds to be made available to the new European Stability Mechanism and the way the funds in the existing European Financial Stability Facility are to be managed; see the eurogroup statement here. They arrive at a [...]
Leaving Berlin on Friday after an interesting meeting at the FES and with spring in the air, I had a choice of newspapers for the flight home. I could have read something innocuous in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. There would likely have been something interesting about my favourite German city in the Tagesspiegel. But a seemingly [...]
These days, Europe appears to be a cold place viewed from the periphery in Ireland. We are being bailed out and supported in many ways by the Troika of the EU, ECB and IMF, but the terms imposed upon citizens largely reflect the liberal economic perspective. We are four long years into austerity. Indicators are [...]
Since December 2011 the European Central Bank (ECB) has pumped two waves of extra liquidity into the European banking system, in an effort to keep it afloat – and persuade backs to invest in sovereign debt. Yet Paul De Grauwe argues that these banks are still wracked with uncertainty, which may lead to further sell-offs of this [...]
The unanimous political response to the crisis across Europe today is that of austerity and budgetary discipline. Cutting pay and social welfare, attacking bargaining mechanisms and making employment contracts ultra-flexible: that is the current paradigm, the Berlin/Brussels consensus, offered as the only way forward. This solution is not working and will not work. It stifles [...]
The almost nightly dose of television horror about Greece is hard to watch, and must be nearly unbearable for Greeks themselves — but it is going to get even worse. Even if the current ‘bailout’ package is approved by the troika (EU/ECB/IMF), Greece is headed towards serious conflict and possibly even a military coup. First, [...]
Perhaps the greatest enemy of the eurozone, at this particular juncture, is an erroneous assumption: that a Greek default is inextricably linked to a Greek exit from the eurozone. The problem with this assumption is twofold: First, it prevents Europe from escaping a trap of its own making. Secondly, it is false. By now, reasonable [...]
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