The author suggests that the 2008 financial crisis was the culmination of an accelerating and inherently unstable process of financial market evolution. He argues that markets are not well organized to manage the power that financial assets have to generate emotion and their wider effect on...

This paper compares the depth of the recent crisis and the Great Depression. We use a new data set to compare the drop in activity in the industrialized countries for seven activity indicators. This is done under the assumption that the recent crisis leveled off in mid-2009 for production and...

The economic power of the euro countries should be strengthened by growth incentives, in the form of an additional European growth fund, which should also be funded by financial transaction tax revenues. The current level of debt requires a strengthening of government revenues. Taxes must be...

Over the past three years, as the euro area has struggled with high levels of sovereign debt, it has been gradually developing into a debt union. However, this is not a sustainable arrangement. This article proposes two alternatives to a debt union: a fiscal union and a monetary union with...

Staatliche Banken können eine wichtige Rolle bei der Sicherung der Funktionsfähigkeit von Finanzsystemen und für die gesamtwirtschaftliche Entwicklung spielen. Dies gilt offenbar vor allem dann, wenn die Bankenregulierung schwach ist und Banken nicht ausreichend überwacht werden. Die...

Die Entwicklungen an den Kapitalmärkten und die Immobilienfinanzierung sind untrennbar miteinander verbunden. Durch den hohen Fremdkapitalbedarf gewerblich und privat genutzter Immobilien hat die Finanzierung eine entscheidende Bedeutung für die Funktionsfähigkeit und die Stabilität des...

This paper investigates the effectiveness of public credit guarantee programs and interest-support programs for SMEs (small and medium enterprises). First, assuming that there is an imperfect information structure in the SME loan market, we analyze how SME support financial programs affect the...

Compared to the U.S., the euro area has been underperforming in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). This holds especially true for peripheral euro area economies. Whereas the U.S. is characterised by a financial system dominated by arms' length (capital-market oriented) interaction...

Die Finanzmarktregulierung ist auch eine Frage sozialer Nachhaltigkeit. Ist sie unzureichend, können Ungleichgewichte verschärft werden: privaten Gewinnen stehen dann soziale Verluste gegenüber. Trotz der Finanzmarktkrise profi tieren Vermögende stärker von Anlagen auf den Finanzmärkten....

Inspired by the extensive criticisms against the textbook fractional reserve theory, this paper revisits the mechanics of money creation process and complements the traditional focus on the reserve requirement by elaborating on the roles of three prudential regulations proposed in the Basel III...