This note argues that the solutions to the euro-area crisis proposed by the EU governing institutions in cooperation with the IMF, based on further austerity and wage cuts, will worsen the crisis. They are unlikely to reduce both sovereign and external debt ratios of countries experiencing these...

The Banking Union increased bank capital requirements and tightened crisis response policy instruments, favoring bank resolutions or liquidations, while hindering bank bailouts. The ECB has gained new powers as the Eurozone's main supervisory authority and as the leading 'resolution or...

This paper overviews the early history of the euro and argues that the euro was sub-optimally designed, without monetary sovereignty of Eurozone (EZ) Member States, in order to comply with political goals set by wealthier Member States. Given this constraint, the euro architects designed a...

This paper analyzes explanations identified in the literature for the subpar economic performance of the so-called peripheral member states of the Euro Area since the mid-1990s. It argues that a key factor was a Dutch disease-like transmission mechanism, as the adoption of the euro led to a...