Germany introduced a new fiscal rule, the ‘debt brake’, after the Global Financial Crisis and since then experienced a strong decline in its public debt to GDP ratio until the coronavirus pandemic struck. The past ten years and the reaction to the current crisis in Germany illustrate the...

Chapter 1. introduction -- Chapter 2. The German Hyperinflation of 1923 -- Chapter 3. Macroeconomic Developments from the End of theof the 1960s to the early 1980s -- Chapter 4. The Inflation Wave from the Late 1960s onward -- Chapter 5. Comparison of developments in the various countries --...

In this paper, we analyze politicians’ expectations about future compliance with a fiscal rule, and in particular the dependence of the expectations on their role in parliament (opposition vs. incumbent government coalition). In addition, we explore how opposition and incumbent politicians...

In this paper, the focus lies on the way the German government spends, how it spends and what the connection between finance ministry and central bank is. The institutions involved in the process are identified and discussed. As a member of the Eurozone, Germany's national central bank is not...