Eurozone

For the third time, Institute of Economic and Social Studies INESS was honored to organize event commemorating Milton Friedman, one of the most notable flag bearers of economic liberty. As INESS is the most frequently quoted economic think tank in Slovakia and a loud defender of market freedom, we wanted to make sure Friedman’s 100th […]

When is going to happen the next Slovak cabinet billion-worth meeting? Is Draghi tough because Angela is on hliday? Will be two Greek bankrupts within six months a new European or Olympic record? What a week! When it come to euro crisis, there is no silly time for sure. For example, how many Slovak cabinet meetings, during […]

In our today’s trips around the Mediterranean we can watch how Greeks try to sell, Spaniards try to borrow and Italians try to stay inconspicuous. We will also have

The current soap opera is far from being wrapped up by the bailout for Spain. We’re only at the 44th episode, and the main character of the whole series – Italy – has so far only been flitting furtively through the background. If you were to change the names of the countries to names of […]

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 […]

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 […]

Two years ago, here in Wrocław [at Wrocław Global Forum], you called United States and Europe “G2 of the world” and today you referred to them as “catamaran on stormy waters”, so I was wondering if you think that we can observe serious, permanent shift of power in contemporary world or just this storm that […]

In response to the on-going financial crisis in the euro zone, LFMI, a leading economic policy think-tank in Lithuania, has worked out and submitted to responsible institutions a plan which would help countries exiting the euro zone to build stable and sound money. LFMI‘s proposal can be also used by the euro zone when attempting […]

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 […]

As finance ministers sat together at the Ecofin meeting last week, the future of the Eurozone was at stake, with Greek political deadlock casting a shadow of darkness over its own euro existence. Greek President Karolos Papoulias was going to ask politicians last Tuesday to stand aside and let a technocratic government be formed to […]