-2012, with a global repository of giant oil, gas, and mineral discoveries. We find strong and robust evidence of a 'fiscal … presource curse', id est, natural resources can jeopardize fiscal sustainability even before 'the first drop of oil is pumped …'. Specifically, we find that giant discoveries, mostly of oil and gas, lead to permanently higher government debt and, eventually …

argued that EMU is of greatest utility for Germany due to the countries' longstanding wage moderation and strong export … important foreign market for German manufacturers, a complete break-up of EMU could noticeably weaken German export performance …