The purpose of the paper is to analyse the current crisis of the eurozone. The first part explains why the eurozone is not an optimum currency area. The second part points out that euro is an intensifier of the business cycle. The third part examines the Greek crisis. The fourth part explains...

This paper analyses the issue of the dynamics of the TARGET2 system balances during the sovereign debt crisis. The development of these balances reflects the change in the distribution of the monetary base among the EMU Member States. During the sovereign debt crisis, while some countries, among...

It is not easy to untangle the logic that in the past led to creation of the European Monetary Union (EMU) and that is currently guiding the prevailing Eurozone (EZ) policies. Although lacking the right institutions, which can be seen as the ultimate root of its crisis, the ten years of the EMU...

The recent developments in the euro area have shown how important it is that the various economic sectors pay attention to their financial positions. In the literature, the approach to analyse these positions is often partial, focusing on the government sector or just on the gross debt, as in...

The global financial crisis created new challenges for the countries which have joined the European Union since 2004 and are not yet members of the euro area. 

Adopting the Euro is Romania’s most important project in its first decade as an EU member by scope, efforts required and impact. The paper aims to initiate a comprehensive debate on topics related to the Euro adoption by raising questions, examining answers and suggesting solutions on issues...

This paper presents a theoretical framework for policy making based on the “impossible trinity” or the “trilemma” hypothesis. A simple optimization model shows that placing more weight in terms of preference for each of the three open macroeconomic policies—exchange rate stability,...

This paper extends our previous paper (Aizenman, Chinn, and Ito 2008) and explores some of the unexplored questions. First, we examine the channels through which the trilemma policy configurations affect output volatility. Secondly, we investigate how trilemma policy configurations affect the...

The financial crisis lastingly transformed the global economic environment and raised much debate as to its causes and transmission channels. This conference, organised by the Banque de France, PSE and the IMF, provided an arena to present and discuss these issues.

Surging growth and rising interdependence of East-Asian economies during the last two decades have heightened interest in monetary and financial integration. From 1985 to 2005, the share of intra-regional trade in total trade for the South-East and East Asian region (including Japan) grew from...