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

Sarkozy jeopardises the future of the euro area

By: Wolfgang Münchau

Germany is heading for a balanced budget by 2011. France is heading for a fiscal shock. An old conflict is re-emerging, and it could prove highly destabilising for the euro area in the medium term.

Misplaced scepticism about Germany’s growth potential

By: Sebastian Dullien, FTD and Eurozone Watch

Is Germany able to sustain the current pace of economic growth? Skeptics argue that most the recent upswing is rather cyclical than structural. But the experience of the United States in the early 1990s and the new growth theory suggest that these concerns may be overly pessimistic. Instead, it looks well possible – and plausible – that Germany is just on a good path to increase its medium term growth performance.

Germany's looming S&L crisis

By: Wolfgang Münchau

Sparkassen, Landesbanken, and mutual banks are heading for the rocks. Good riddance!

What is Kurt Beck up to?

By: Wolfgang Münchau

Germany's SPD is repositioning itself to the left - ready to pull out of the Grand Coalition when the time is right - sometime in 2008/2009.