Central banks are at the epicenter of the current crisis. Accused of starting the crisis or, conversely, praised for having worked to overcome it, central banks need to draw conclusions stemming from the global crisis and to undertake necessary reforms. At present, when the crisis appears to be...

Nowadays, it is widely believed that greater disclosure and clarity over policy may lead to greater predictability of central bank actions. We examine whether communication by the European Central Bank (ECB) adds information compared to the information provided by a Taylor rule model in which...

This paper examines five possible explanations for the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009, using data for the United States and the eurozone. Of these five hypotheses, four are not supported by the data, while the fifth appears reasonable.