After almost four decades of price stability, inflation has recently approached historical highs. Initially driven by global energy and food price increases, the magnitude of the surge in inflation caught central banks and markets by surprise. Price pressures are now increasingly broadening to...

This paper offers a narrative description of Western European monetary policies during the 1980s, seen from a French and European perspective and based on the archives of the General Council of the Bank of France and of the Committee of Governors (CoG) of the central banks of the member states...

In 2022, the European Central Bank (ECB) introduced the Transmission ProtectionInstrument (TPI) to counter the risk of financial fragmentation following the normalisation ofmonetary policy. The ECB has specified conditions under which the TPI can be activated.This paper examines these conditions...

Two recent proposals for overcoming the euro area crisis make the case for monetary financing of the public sector. Watt proposes that the ECB finances public investment directly, while Pâris and Wyplosz contend that public debt may be effectively restructured by burying parts of it in the...

The extraordinary measures taken by the ECB to combat the financial crisis have led many observers to question whether the bank has put its independence at risk. The bank's vow to do 'whatever it takes' to save the euro has added a second (and potentially contradictory) goal alongside its...

Large increases in TARGET2 balances in the euro area since 2008 have led to concern and debate about the appropriate interpretation and policy reaction – in particular in TARGET2 creditor countries such as Germany. Against this background, we examine the main drivers of the increases and...