The aim of this paper is to assess the ability of social spending to smooth output shocks and to provide stabilization. The results show that overall social spending is able to smooth about 16 percent of a shock to GDP. Among its subcategories, social spending devoted to Old Age and Unemployment...

Over the last thirty years or so the developments in the area of monetary and macroeconomic policies have been quite substantial. Within the new consensus macroeconomics (NCM), monetary policy is upgraded while fiscal policy is downgraded. This new monetary policy has been the main instrument of...

The response in 2008-09 to the global financial crisis was in many ways a high water mark for transatlantic policy coordination. The major economies of the EU and the US rapidly agreed on a series of measures to limit the crisis. However, the common approach has since unraveled. This paper...

Die mit großer Authenzität erzählte Geschichte vom Aufstieg und Niedergang der Investmentbank Lehman Brothers und ihrer Rettung durch das Weiße Haus, das Finanzministerium und die US-Notenbank gibt tiefe Einblicke in die internationale Finanzwirtschaft. (I. Müller-Boysen)