Die neunziger Jahre erlebten in Europa die wirtschaftspolitische Dominanz eines neu-monetaristischen oekonomischen Paradigmas, das auch die Architektur der Europaeischen Waehrungsunion wesentlich praegte: Unabhaengige Zentralbanken sind demnach einzig und allein auf das Ziel der...

During the recent decades the financial sectors of developed and developing countries have changed remarkably. There has been a major increase in the degree of financial intermediation, and new financial instruments, triggered by national and international legal liberalisation and by the...

Despite the current growth speed up and increasing employment within the EU, one can still say that European integration is in crisis: Economic performance of the EU and, in particular, the Euro area has been lagging behind the USA, not to mention other regions of the world. At the same time...

Since the final stage of European monetary integration in the mid-1990s, the member countries of the Euro area have been suffering from slow growth and high unemployment. On average, the Euro area’s economic performance has been unsatisfactory, in particular since the growth slow down in 2001....

Die deutsche Finanzpolitik steckt seit Jahren in einer tiefen Krise. Trotz hartnaeckiger Sparpolitik wird Deutschland 2005 zum vierten Mal in Folge die Defizitobergrenze des europaeischen Stabilitaets- und Wachstumspaktes ueberschreiten. Der Versuch, in der Konjunkturkrise die Haushalte zu...

This paper traces the euro zone?s inadequate macroeconomic performance in recent years back to the predominance of a restrictive macroeconomic policy mix based on a ?new monetarist? approach to economic policy. An approach based on a (post-)Keynesian analysis is presented as a growth and...

It is by now widely accepted that the structural characteristics of the countries to become the euro area did not adhere to the conditions of an optimum currency area (OCA) when the euro was introduced in 1999. However, the satisfaction of OCA criteria may not be required for a workable currency...

Based on a post-Keynesian model of the relationship between wages, prices and employment, this paper begins by studying the extent to which unit labour cost trends have been responsible for disinflation and deflationary tendencies in Germany and Europe. Thereafter, the reasons for the...

The German debt brake is often regarded as a great success story, and has therefore served as a role model for the Euro area and its fiscal compact. In this paper we fundamentally criticize the debt brake. We show that (1) it suffers from serious shortcomings, and its success is far from certain...