This book discusses the future of MERCOSUR, focusing on monetary union and macroeconomic policy co-ordination, and addresses a number of important questions including: is it possible, or even desirable, to achieve monetary integration?; what would the pre-conditions be for establishing such a...

The objective of this paper is to reflect on some of the implications that recent economic experience has for monetary and financial stability policies. We contend that the financial crisis and the upsurge in inflation 2007-08 have shown that the policy model based on the new consensus in...

The financial crisis and recession have highlighted a range of problems with the ‘euro project’, but these problems and difficulties are related to some fundamental issues for the euro. The convergence criteria established by the Maastricht Treaty focused on nominal rather than real...

This paper examines the implications of the experience with the financial crisis of August 2007 for fiscal policy and the use made of it. We briefly sketch the changing attitudes toward fiscal policy and the demise of arbitrary rules for the budget deficits and the reassertion of purposeful...

A major argument used against the use of fiscal policy comes from the view that there are automatic forces within an economic system to ensure high levels of demand. This paper argues that the case for fiscal policy in general rests on the proposition that there are no such market forces that...

This paper focuses on the future of economic policies with regard to inflation. The dominant approach to inflation over the past two decades or so has been inflation targeting. The global environment of the decade circa 1995 to 2005 with the “China effect†pushing down prices of...

The authors believe that a serious move toward a political union is probably necessary to save the euro. However, current arrangements are not yet adequate to get us there.