Most of Southern Europe is only gradually emerging from the devastating effects of the eurozone crisis, with unemployment receding only gradually and a country as big as Italy seemingly stuck in a growth rate below one per cent even as risk premia have fallen dramatically. But Europe is more...

The Swiss National Bank's January 2015 decision to abandon the Swiss franc's peg to the euro led to short-term chaos in exchange markets and had a dampening effect on the Swiss economy. Some economists suggested Switzerland was poised to enter a sustained period of stagnation à la Japan. The...

The position taken by politicians and important pressure groups in Germany concerning EMU will depend to a large extent on its labour market implications—and thus on the (perceived) impact of exchange rate variability on employment and unemployment. Most economists would assume this impact to...

The disintegration of the Soviet Union as a political entity has already begun. As an economic entity it is still intact. The following article examines the advantages and disadvantages facing the republics if they choose to break away completely.