Seit der zweiten Hälfte der 1990er gab es drei gravierende Finanzkrisen, jeweils mit einer erheblichen Beteiligung der Rating-Agenturen (RAs). Im Lichte der erzielten Ergebnisse entsprechen RAs nicht ihren Leistungsversprechen. Sie erweisen sich als fehlbar und überfordert. Das ist angesichts...

The global financial crisis (as well as the European sovereign debt crisis) has led to a substantial redesign of rules and institutions - aiming in particular at underwriting financial stability. At the same time, the crisis generated a renewed interest in properly appraising systemic financial...

The eurozone remains in a deep, largely macro-economic crisis. A robust global economy and falling oil prices have supported Europe´s economy for some time, but by now it is clear that the eurozone will only be able to pull itself out of this crisis by means of more decisive action. One...

Non-bank (-balance sheet) based financial intermediation has become considerably more important over the last couple of decades. For the U.S., this trend has been discussed ever since the mid-1990s. As a consequence, traditional monetary transmission mechanisms, mainly operating through bank...

Since the second half of the 1990s, three major financial crises occurred, each with a significant involvement of rating agencies (RAs). Their rather poor performance palpably shows that they did not live up to their promises. RAs have proven to be fallible and overburdened. Given the task to...

Compared to the U.S., the euro area has been underperforming in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). This holds especially true for peripheral euro area economies. Whereas the U.S. is characterised by a financial system dominated by arms' length (capital-market oriented) interaction...

Studies employing micro price data to examine the extent of international goods market integration tend to find that borders induce arbitrage-impeding transaction costs which contribute to segment national markets. Analyzing household scanner price data from the three euro area countries...