This paper compares the depth of the recent crisis and the Great Depression. We use a new data set to compare the drop in activity in the industrialized countries for seven activity indicators. This is done under the assumption that the recent crisis leveled off in mid-2009 for production and...

The 'Five Presidents Report' cited in the title acknowledges that an important driver of the European economic crisis has been the faulty original design of the Monetary Union, and that substantial steps are urgently needed towards the creation of truly supranational institutions. Yet,...

This paper offers a meticulous description and analysis of the development of the Target balances, with a rich set of new data and detailed information that specialists will treasure and the general public will find illuminating. The last part of the paper, in which the author discusses measures...