The Bundesbank and the Banque de France held their third joint conference on 19 and 20 May 2011 in Hamburg. The conference was devoted to the challenges that macroeconomic policy – in the form of monetary, fi scal and tax policy – must address in the short and long run.

On September 15-16, 2011 the annual Macroeconomics Research Workshop took place at Magyar Nemzeti Bank, Budapest, celebrating its 10th year of existence, out of which it was organized jointly with the CEPR for the 4th time. The workshop's title and main theme was ‘Fiscal Rebalancing, Public...

Ireland and Spain are among the countries where most intense has been the bank-debt vicious circle. Banks were at the forefront of crisis, as a consequence of weak balances, and exposure to real estate. Public support for banks, as well as other expansionary programs, drove public finances to...

The euro crisis was typically presented as excessive fiscal deficits leading to the accumulation of unsustainable public debts. This diagnosis applied most notably in Greece and Italy, but also Portugal and Spain. Implicit in much of the analysis, and occasionally explicit, was the suggestion...

A The lesson from the past is tough, but undeniable: All currency unions that were not anchored in state like political structures were wrecked sooner or later. This became the outcome when the economic development of participating countries began to drift apart, and the internal contradictions...