Only a few years ago, it was a widespread belief that globalisation would trigger processes of democratisation worldwide. However, even old and established democracies such as the United States have recently revealed serious weaknesses. This article shows that the US election system is heavily...

Die Betrachtung der Gini-Koeffizienten sowohl vor als auch nach Umverteilung zeigt, dass die Verteilung der persönlichen Einkommen in den USA zwischen 1947 und 2020 ungleicher geworden ist. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die möglichen Konzepte, die den Zielvorgaben für die Einkommensverteilung...

The debt crisis of the developing countries, which loomed so large at the beginning of the eighties, appears for the time being to have been overcome. However, under the surface problems are growing that could give a debt crisis among the developing countries an entirely new dimension. Under...

The question whether European Monetary Union should include all the EC countries from the start or should initially be limited to a few core countries is again being discussed more intensely. What advantages would a small EMU have from an economic point of view? Which countries should be its...

Trust or likewise "confidence" (the term preferred in this paper) are notions which have received considerable attention by economists in the last 8-10 years. In this contribution, much emphasis is put on the understanding what we really mean by "confidence", what the differences between...

In diesem Beitrag formulieren wir zunächst einige Hypothesen über die möglichen Beiträge der Währungspolitik zur gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung vor dem Hintergrund des berühmten Trilemmas, das prinzipiell für jede Währungsordnung gelöst werden muss. Anschließend lassen wir in einem...

In diesem Beitrag diskutieren wir den in der Literatur heftig umstrittenen Aspekt, ob Vertrauen (Institutionen) nur ein Komplement zu formellen Institutionen (Vertrauen) sein oder diese(s) möglicherweise sogar substituieren kann (können). Wir fassen Vertrauen als spezifische, kooperative...

Given all the evidence supporting Milton Friedman's proposition that inflation is now and every-where a monetary phenomenon, it seems that we are wrong when we tend to ignore the behaviour of the monetary aggregates at our peril. The total neglect of information about the monetary aggregates in...

In this paper, we discuss the new aspects of exchange rate policy which can be observed in the emerging market economies and their most likely implications for allocation, distribution and stabilization goals. A special emphasis is put on the Chinese case, where large interventions in the...