How abnormal was the stock market in October 2008?

By: Paul De Grauwe, Leonardo Iania, Pablo Rovira Kaltwasser

Last month saw a stock market move with a probability of occurring only once in 73,357,946,799,753,

900,000,000 years. What does this tell us about modern finance?

Fannie and Freddie on the rope

By: Wolfgang Münchau

When house price are expected to decline by 30%, some strange things are happening

France's fiscal follies

By: André Sapir, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Why Commissioner Almunia is right to urge France to stick to its commitment under the SGP.

Does Sarkozy mean what he says?

By: Wolfgang Münchau

I think he does, and this means there is a lot of trouble ahead for the rest of us in Europe.

Sarkozy's plans for the euro area are bad economic governance

By: Wolfgang Münchau

Nicholas Sarkozy has threatened to make a proposal to "strengthen" economic policy co-ordination within the euro area. He wants drive down the value of the euro, to allow France to run bigger deficits, and to harmonise taxes - in other words everything that gives policy co-ordination a bad name.

So Few Great French Places To Work

By: Nicolas Véron, Bruegel

In the ranking of the "Great Place To Work Institute", France comes off disastrously in this ranking, last of all participating European countries with only four companies in the top 100. There are many possible causes - hierarchical management model, corporate paternalism, confrontational unions, rigidities of a planned economy, nationalizations, and a long legacy of corporatism. But while the exact cause may elude analysis, it is more important to step up awareness of the problem itself.