Should central banks publish their interest rate forecasts?

By: Stefan Gerlach, University of Frankfurt

No. The level of uncertainty is simply too high.

Fannie and Freddie on the rope

By: Wolfgang Münchau

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

OECD cuts euro area growth forecast to 1.7%

Germany holds up, but the rest of the euro area falters; US growth is revised upwards; oil falls back to just over $100, amid relief about the mild impact of hurricane Gustav; in Italian variable mortgage rates exceed 6%, the highest level since 2002; Ireland, meanwhile, is heading for a Maastricht Treaty busting deficit this year.

It’s democracy, stupid!

By: Stefan Collignon and Christan Paul

In this article, the authors advocate a "coalition of the willing" to form a truly democratic political union.

Time to play hardball with the Irish

By: Wolfgang Münchau

There are only two solutions to the Irish dilemma, both involving the retention of the Lisbon Treaty: Offer the Irish a meaningless protocol that provides guarantees they already have, or force them out of the EU.

The global euro needs stronger institutions

By: Wolfgang Münchau

Institutions matter. They create their own agendas. Nobody knows this better than the European Commission itself.

The death of German corporatism

By: Wolfgang Munchau

It was always clear that German corporatism would not survive the first half of the 21st century. What was less clear was how long this process would last and which form its destruction would take. Two important events last week greatly accelerated that process.