With public debt-to-GDP levels now set to surpass post-war records and Italy’s ratio approaching levels reached in Greece on the eve of the country’s debt restructuring in early 2012, fears of a return of the sovereign debt crisis have emerged.

Two recent proposals for overcoming the euro area crisis make the case for monetary financing of the public sector. Watt proposes that the ECB finances public investment directly, while Pâris and Wyplosz contend that public debt may be effectively restructured by burying parts of it in the...

In the US, the negative consequences of increased trade with China, and of globalisation in general, have been associated with a turn towards populism and ultimately the election of Donald Trump as president in November 2016.

In the July/August issue of Intereconomics, Silke Tober criticised a proposal put forth by Andrew Watt to solve the euro crisis through the use of monetary financing of the public sector. Tober argued that there are valid reasons to keep monetary and fiscal policy separate from one another and...

Against the background of the dramatic changes in the prices of oil and other raw materials in the recent past, this paper analyses the effects of commodity price shocks in a New Keynesian model. The focus is on the central bank's choice of inflation target and the degree of real wage rigidity....