Five years of crisis have pushed Europe to take emergency financial measures to cushion the free fall of distressed countries. However, efforts to turn the crisis into a spur for â??an ever closer unionâ?? have met with political resistance to the surrender of fiscal sovereignty. If such a...

Ignazio Angeloni believes that the increase in financial interdependence in recent decades has not been matched by sufficient progress in the international coordination among regulatory authorities. In fact, the international financial system has suffered from insufficient globalisation of...

In this piece, which draws on firsthand experience within the Swedish government throughout one of the most dramatic consolidation episodes of the post-WWII period, Jens Henriksson seeks to pinpoint, and to convey to fellow policymakers, what equations and econometrics do not capture. His ten...

In this lecture, given at Bruegelâ??s Annual Meeting in June, 2006, Jeffry Frieden focuses on why the first era of globalisation could not be restored, and why it was ultimately replaced by a system based on the rules of Bretton Woods. The historical experience of global capitalism shows, he...

This essay analyses the central role that Germany has and continues to play in the European Union. The author looks back at how Germany acted as a Â?benevolent hegemonÂ? through the adoption of the single currency and the creation of the European Monetary Union. Against this background, he...

After tracing the link between politics and trade over a millennium, Kevin O'Rourke identifies permanent features of international economic relations. His timing is perfect. The crisis has switched the balance of power. Government is back in the driving seat and corporations look fragile. No one...

Ever since first the blueprints for monetary union in Europe were drawn up, the United States, considered as a collection of individual states or regions, has served as a benchmark for assessing its feasibility and evaluating alternative policy options. Starting with Robert Mundellâ??s seminal...

Banking Union, even in its current incomplete form, is the single biggest structural policy success of the EU since the start of the financial crisis. This essay presents the sequence of events that led to its inception in late June 2012 and takes stock on its current status of implementation...