This paper discusses the central macroeconomic claims that are made in Thomas Piketty's book 'Capital in the Twenty-first Century'. The paper aims to show that Piketty's contentions are not only logically flawed but also contradicted by his own data.

Seit der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise ist die Staatsverschuldung einiger Euroländer so stark gestiegen wie nie zuvor, und eine glaubwürdige Konsolidierungsstrategie ist nicht in Sicht. Im Gegenteil, vermehrt wird sogar eine Lockerung der Sparpolitik gefordert, um so die Wirtschaft anzukurbeln....

Financial repression committed by central banks has been put forward as a means to secretly reduce the real burden of high public debts. Financial repression has allegedly played an important role in the impressive reduction of the US debt ratio after World War II. A mix of conventional budget...

In September 2012, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its new “Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT)” programme, which entails unlimited purchases of member states’ government bonds. Following an idea by George Soros, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, the ECB intends to sterilise these...

The article reviews judgements regarding the German church tax.

In Germany, commuting expenses have been deductible from the income tax base for a long time. Germany’s grand coalition has now restricted this deduction. The article analyses whether or not this was justified from an economic point of view. It is shown that, in the long run, the tax treatment...

Der Aufsatz untersucht Paul Kirchhofs Vorschlag eines Einkommensteuergesetzbuchs.

The article analyses the incentive effects of the German system of intergovernmental grants.

The article deals with the earnings stripping rule (or interest barrier), an important part of the German company tax act 2008. The new rule is analyzed both from an economic and a legal perspective.