The credit crunch was most likely viewed as a mixed blessing by many private equity executives. On the one hand, it signalled the end of the most favourable set of economic conditions the private equity industry had ever witnessed: abundant capital, low interest rates, increasing stock market...

The credit crunch was most likely viewed as a mixed blessing by many private equity executives. On the one hand, it signalled the end of the most favourable set of economic conditions the private equity industry had ever witnessed: abundant capital, low interest rates, increasing stock market...

The financial turmoil that originated in 2007 and developed into an unprecedented crisis battering financial and real markets is the latest manifestation, on a grand scale and with new attributes, of a welldefined pathology in the process of market liberalization and integration in the...

This chapter discusses the current issues of the French economy. It is obviously beyond the scope of this report to discuss all aspects. Our approach is therefore focussed on a central question: What is the current government trying to achieve economically and will it succeed? In order to...

The financial crisis triggered by the bursting of the US real-estate bubble has spread over the entire world to different degrees and markedly slowed down world economic growth in 2008. This year, all major regions in the world will be in recession.

Global economic conditions have deteriorated considerably since summer 2011. Europe in particular has been obliged to revise its growth expectations sharply downwards. The debt crisis and its consequences have stifled demand worldwide, even impacting regions that have long been developing...

There are differing views on the causes of, and cures for, this crisis. At one end of the spectrum, some ultimately see it as a public debt crisis and advocate the strengthening of political constraints on government borrowing. Others primarily regard it as a confidence crisis, which should be...

This chapter summarises recent developments in Hungary and aims to shed some light on why Hungary failed to live up to the expectations of the early 1990s. Section 5.2 analyses Hungary’s growth performance since 1990, and is followed by an analysis of its labour markets in Section 5.3. Section...

Chapter 2: The European Balance-of-Payments Problem: Introduce ‘euro-standard’ bills / Settle Target balances. Chapter 3: Banking Regulation: Promote European financial integration / Give national central banks a supervisory role / Redesign the euro area’s financial architecture. Chapter...