This paper advances the hypothesis that the world debt crisis was mainly induced by the dramatic rise of US interest rates in the first half of the eighties. It sees this rise in interest rates primarily as a result of a tight US monetary policy and excessively large investment incentives...

While the ECB helped mitigate the euro crisis in the aftermath of Lehman, it has stretched its monetary mandate and moved into fiscal territory. This text describes and summarizes the crucial role played by the ECB in the intervention spiral resulting from its bid to manage the crisis. It also...

This paper reconsiders the determinants of the exchange rate by studying the historical episode after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Testing a modified portfolio balance model, we attribute the strength of the deutschmark in the early nineties and the puzzling decline of the euro during its...

Inhalt: 1. Regulatorische Gründe für die Krise 2. Refinanzierungskredite und Target-Salden 3. Staatspapierkäufe der EZB und offizielle Rettungsprogramme 4. Die Risiken und Kosten der EZB-Politik 5. Ökonomische Bewertung der EZB-Politik 6. Politikmaßnahmen gegen Zinsspreizungen 7....