This paper contributes to the discussion on the European current account imbalances by analysing the intra-European trends since 1990 based on the theory of optimum currency areas. The authors show that German unification was the origin of not only the 1992-93 EMS crisis but also rising...

Stagnating development aid and continued reluctance on the part of western commercial banks to grant new loans to problem debtor countries have led many developing countries to pay greater attention to the mobilisation of their own resources. This article outlines a strategy for increasing the...

In its present set-up, the EMU could be expected to follow its historical predecessor, the Latin Monetary Union, which was founded in 1865 and in effect ended in 1914. Then as now, it was impossible to coerce sovereign states to follow the rules needed to establish a single currency.

Given the global trend in corporate saving over the last decades, the COVID-19 crisis raises doubts about the persistence of companies’ saving behaviour due to the losses which have occurred in many companies caused by the isolation of households and by lockdowns. Before the pandemic,...