Without a lender of last resort financial stability is not possible and systemic financial crises get out of control. During and after the Great Reces-sion the US Federal Reserve System (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) took on the role of lender of last resort in a comprehensive way....

The German debt brake is often regarded as a great success story and has therefore served as a role model for the Euro area and it’s Fiscal Compact. In this paper we fundamentally criticise the debt brake. Firstly, we show that it suffers from serious shortcomings and that its success is...