Can the IMF Save the World?

By: Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley

Only if the IMF comes up with some new ideas.

The case against a Grand Coalition in 2009

By: Wolfgang Münchau

Forget all this hogwash about the responsibility of the cenrtre. Grand coalitions are undemocratic.

Should Central Banks target asset prices?

One of the most controversial issues in modern macroeconomics is the question whether the central should prick, target, take an interest or ignore asset price bubbles. It is a multi-faceted subject, on which no consensus has yet emerged, which is in part a reflection of much ongoing research in this area. This briefing note is in part related to the briefing note about whether money has a role to play in modern central bank. Some of the arguments are parallels, and pro-bubble-pricking advocates also tend to favour to rely on monetary aggregates, at least to some extent.

Interest in this subject was sparked by the Federal Reserve's monetary policy in the mid-to-late 1990s, a period characterised by Alan Greenspan, former governor of the Fed, as one of "irrational exuberance" as early as...

Is there a house price bubble in the Euro Area?

Some of the big questions facing the US at the moment is the extent of the housing recession, and the implication for the wider economy. Another issue is whether the US housing recession will spill over into the euro area. In the past, housing shocks were transmitted across the Atlantic. Will it happen again?The first thing to note is that there is a high correlation between house prices in the US and in Europe, and especially with France and Spain. In a recent analysis, Deutsche Bank producing a scoring model to identify the sensitivity of European house prices to change in US house prices, and concluded that Ireland and Spain are most vulnerable to a slowdown in US housing. They conclude that any bad news from the world economy will not be compensated by housing, as happened in 2001,...

A short collection of references to the FSAP

By: Wolfgang Munchau

The Financial Services Action Plan is an ambitious blueprint by the European Union to create a single market for financial services by 2010. A well integrated financial services market is regarded not only as a benefit to trade integration inside the EU, but it is also regarded as particularly important for the smooth functioning of the euro area. At present, financial and banking services within the EU are poorly integrated, relative to the trade in manufactured goods.

In the following list we present a number of important documents related to the FSAP:

- The original report of the Lamfalussy Group

- The EU Commission's White Paper for Financial Services Policy 2005-2010, plus Annexes

- The EU Commission's 2005 Evaluation of the FSAP

- A practical guide to the FSAP by the UK...