Eurozone inflation underperforms since the beginning of 2013 and monetary policy struggles to stabilize it since then. The items of the aggregate inflation rate indicate that low inflation is due to both supply and demand factors and weak demand is caused by indebtness and unemployment....

European financial markets are still fragmented. A lack of cross-border lending and cross-border asset holdings hinders the financing of the economy, the conduct of monetary policy as well as cross-border risk-sharing against asymmetric shocks. Reviving the market for securitizations is vital...

Digitization affects all sectors of the economy. A new and possibly disruptive digital technology is the blockchain, a decentralized ledger, which seems to offer great promise for many financial and business applications.

The blockchain technology offers the promise to be cheaper, faster, less error-prone and safer compared to traditional financial services. Whether a market for blockchain services will emerge, depends, however, on several criteria.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has prolonged its large-scale asset purchase programs for public and private bonds in December 2016 until the end of 2017. Otherwise the programs would have expired in March 2017. Due to its strong focus on the inflation target of below, but close to 2 percent,...

After the economic recovery has strengthened and inflation rates have increased, hopes for higher interest rates emerged among savers, while debtors began to fear higher financing costs. This article argues, that there is room for higher interest rates, but this room is small compared to...

The US-President Donald Trump has signed an executive order which directs the US Treasury department to revise financial regulation, especially the Dodd-Frank Act. Critics are afraid that this will cause inconsistencies in global regulation and weaken the EU's financial centres. This article...

The Brexit will affect the stability of derivatives markets. These markets are huge and global, but they concentrate on the financial hub London. This article discusses post-Brexit scenarios for the financial supervision of these important markets and recommends to strengthen the supervision at...

The ECB has left its policy interest rates unchanged despite inflationary pressures stemming from a strengthened recovery and from rising oil prices. Although the ECB's Governing Council did not discuss a renewal of the long-term refinancing operations, which will expire in 2020, its monetary...

Die wirtschaftliche und politische Unsicherheit hat im Jahresverlauf 2016 noch einmal deutlich zugenommen. Neben den Wachstumsproblemen in großen Schwellenländern und der noch nicht gelösten Schulden- und Strukturprobleme in Europa haben der angekündigte Austritt des Vereinigten Königreichs...