This paper assesses the extent to which debt overhang poses a constraint to economic activity in Emerging Europe, as the region emerges from the recent financial and economic crisis. At the macroeconomic level, it finds that the external imbalance problem for Emerging Europe has been in most...

Die Beschlüsse von Maastricht zur Einführung einer gemeinsamen europäischen Währung erzeugten unterschiedlichste Reaktionen in Öffentlichkeit und Wissenschaft: Während die einen von einer "Vision für Europa" sprachen, warnten andere vor einem "gefährlichen Irrweg". Auch heute noch...

At the height of the European sovereign debt crisis, the European Central Bank decided to purchase distressed European government bonds. Even worse, and more importantly, the ECB is providing direct support of several hundred billions of euros to troubled banks via its normal monetary policy...