Central banks still don’t provide monetary opium, how long will the current illusions last without it? New taxes and economic growth. Milton Friedman would be 100 years old. Crisis is 5 years old. Last week we challenged the governor of the ECB Mario Draghi, who promised the moon to the markets, to stop talking and to show the money instead (Show Me the Money!). This week it turned out that there is no money to cover…

Is destabilization of the EU really the only alternative? German constitutional court takes its time. The state won’t allow any competition in manipulating interest rates. Many Spaniards have put all the eggs in one basket, which is currently hitting the ground. When Silvio is talking, rating agencies are listening. New chairman of the Council for Budget Responsibility and former governor of the National Bank of Slovakia Ivan Šramko claims that there is no alternative for…

In March 2010, when the Greek debt crisis was heating up, then-ECB president Jean Claude Trichet declared to the EU parliament that the “monetary Union in Europe is far more than a monetary arrangement. It is a union of shared destiny”. Less than two months later the ECB reversed its refusal to monetize debt and openly started buying government bonds in violation of its own charta. Germany also gave up its reservations about bailing out…

The European Central Bank (ECB) published its Convergence Report(2012), in which it evaluates the progress of the members states that have committed themselves to joining the euro by following the convergence criteria, better known as the “Maastricht” criteria. At this point in time, Bulgaria has passed the requirements for deficit, debt, inflation and long-term interest rates, but this does not mean automatically that the road to the euro is open. What is more important, the…

About the Greeks beating German-looking pensioners and Greek members of parliament playing black metal, while Merkel is happy to gamble with their lives. About fiscal pact, which is good in one country and bad in another one, about reducing debt with the help of magic and about American budgetary hockey game, which ended 99:0. After  3 000 years Greeks have improved the art of drama to the level of perfection. After practically nobody happened to agree…