This book explores the origins, rationale, problems and prospects of the European fiscal policy framework. It provides the reader with a roadmap to EMU's budgetary framework by exploring its theoretical and empirical foundations, uncovering its historical roots and emphasising its supranational...

1. The essence of the problem -- 2. The trade perspective -- 3. National accounting perspectives -- 4. The international perspective -- 5. Nature of the adjustment mechanisms -- 6. The sustainability of the deficit -- 7. The demand for US assets -- 8. China and the United States -- 9. Conclusion.

This book deals with the economic consequences of monetary integration, which has long been dominated by the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) paradigm. In this model, money is perceived as having developed from a private sector cost minimization process to facilitate transactions. Not surprisingly,...

Potential new entrants to the European Union from Central and Eastern European countries face many challenges to achieve financial convergence with the existing EU nations. Using detailed case studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and analysis of cross country...

The authors offer a sustained argument that the single currency as currently implemented does not promise to deliver prolonged growth. They contend that the economic impact of the euro, and its accompanying institutions, is likely to be destabilising and deflationary; that the political impact...

The dramatic evolution of financial markets in the 1980s and 1990s, accompanied by increasing institutional integration between nations (most notably in the EU), have fostered a widespread belief that governments - particularly those of small economies - have essentially lost the power to pursue...

1. Introduction -- 2. Issues facing the global economy -- 3. Internal aspects of the euro -- 4. International aspects of the euro -- 5. Lionel Robbins lecture -- 6. The future of the EMU, the euro, and international finance -- 7. The role of gold in the international monetary system -- 8....

'There was a world BC (Before Crisis) and there will be a world AD (After Deleveraging) the challenge is to create an effective, efficient yet stable and sustainable financial system for this "new world". This book provides the most comprehensive and thought-provoking basis for action I have...

Contents: Part I: What were the causes of the Great Recession? -- Preface to part I / Tim Congdon -- 1. What were the causes of the Great Recession?: the mainstream approach vs. the monetary interpretation / Tim Congdon -- 2. The debate over 'quantitative easing' in the UK's Great Recession and...