Given the renewed interest in negative interest rates as a means for overcoming the zero bound on nominal interest rates, this article reviews the history of negative nominal interest rates and gives a brief survey over the current proposals that received popular attention in the wake of the...

Walter Eucken was the head of the Freiburg school of economics, a circle of German ordoliberal scholars of the interwar period, whose thoughts were highly influential in the immediate post war period. Being disillusioned by what he called the “age of experiments”- the failure of both...

This paper discusses the instrument of equalisation claims, which has successfully been used in two previous German debt crises as a method for stabilizing the balance sheets of financial institutions. A modern version of this method would swap temporarily illiquid assets for government bonds...

This paper critically discusses three proposals to overcome the zero interest bound, which have recently been proposed by prominent economists. We trace back the historical origins of these proposals, reaching back to the late 19th century, and comment on their theoretical and practical...

Corporate limited liability has a long and contentious history, stretching back to the mid-19th century and beyond. Initially being hailed as one of the decisive legal invention of our age, recently scholars have highlighted the negative effects of curtailing liability. This in turn has inspired...

In terms of broad band infrastructure, Germany lacks a strategic objective beyond the 2025 target of 1 Gbit/s in download speed. However, future demand will require exhaustive fibre coverage to the building (fttb) connections. Renewing the existing copper-based infrastructure through private...

Der Koalitionsvertrag beinhaltet hinsichtlich der digitalen Infrastrukturen viele Forderungen, die seit längerem von Praktiker:innen in den Ländern und Kommunen erhoben werden. So bekennen sich die Regierungsparteien erstmals zu einem Glasfaserinfrastrukturziel. Damit setzt der Bund um, was...

This paper discusses the instrument of equalisation claims, which has successfully been used in two previous German debt crises as a method for stabilizing the balance sheets of financial institutions. A modern version of this method would swap temporarily illiquid assets for government bonds...