Since the first edition of this book, the world's financial system went through its greatest crisis for a century. What made this crisis unique is that severe financial problems emerged simultaneously in many different countries and that its economic impact was felt throughout the world as a...

This paper evaluates the Stability and Growth Pact. After examining the rules in place and the experience so far, the Pact is analysed from a political economy perspective, focusing on the choice for so-called soft law and drawing inferences from characteristics of successful fiscal rules at the...