Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi continues his sequence of speeches that are relevant to Ireland – available here.
Category: EMU
There is another cracking column by Colm in today’s Sunday Independent.
Money quote:
The European economies have not been experiencing the worst recession since the Second World War because the retirement age is too low, or because there are national differences in corporation tax rates. Ireland is not in an IMF bailout because the budget deficit, in the years before the crisis, was outside the Eurozone parameters. There was exemplary compliance with the fiscal policy rules and all boxes were ticked, up until 2007, in Ireland and in most Eurozone countries. This is a banking crisis and it remains unresolved three years after the bubble began to burst.
Via the indispensable Eurointelligence, here is yet another astonishing statement by a senior German policymaker (in this case, Axel Weber):
“We have to put into the constitutions of member states a balanced budget rule of (sic) a deficit reduction rule, some way or another.”
Never were Tonto’s words so politically to the point.
The ECB has updated its manual on the conduct of monetary policy. This is required reading for all visitors to this blog and is available here.
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was a major figure in the creation of the euro; he died just before Christmas.
Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi provides a very interesting overview of his career in this speech.