Eurozone

This thesis analyses the idea of central bank independence, how it shaped the creation of the European Central Bank (ECB) and its management of the Euro Crisis. Based on a genealogical analysis, the thesis identifies the central normative commitments undergirding the insulation of monetary policy from ordinary democratic politics. It argues that central bank independence is an institutional response to the ‘problem of politics’ in relation to money: the problem that money is simultaneously founded on political authority and fundamentally threatened by the ordinary exercise of this authority. Central bank independence, then, constitutes a way of grounding the value of money politically while at the same time depoliticising its government. The form that central bank independence takes in practice, however, differs substantially, reflecting different ways of wedding the idea to broader constitutional imaginaries. Drawing comparisons to other major central banks, the thesis details the ECB’s form of independence and argues that the creation of the ECB not as a government agency (as the Fed) or a societal power on a par with the government (as the Bundesbank), but as a sovereign representative on a par with the Member States altered the constitutional make-up of the Eurozone. As the existential crisis of the euro shows, general tensions within central bank independence become irresolvable contradictions in this constitutional construct. Without institutional mechanisms for resolving them through ordinary politics, the emergency politics of the Euro Crisis placed the ECB centre-stage, engaged in the ‘higher lawmaking’ of changing the Eurozone’s constitution in order to save it. In doing so, however, the ECB redefined the meaning of its independence and reignited ‘the problem of politics’ by undermining its underlying social contract.

Avrupa Birliği (AB) kuruluş ve gelişim süreci boyunca çeşitli amaçlara sahip oldu: kapitalizmin "barış" koşullarında zor dışı yollarla yayılması ve işlemesi; Doğu blokundan korunma arzusu, bununla da bağlantılı olarak ABD sermayesiyle bütünleşme ihtiyacı; daha sonrasında emperyalistler arası rekabette ayakta kalma ihtiyacı, bununla da bağlantılı olarak Euro bölgesi, Schengen sistemi gibi Avrupa sermayesinin elini güçlendirecek bütünleşme adımları ve bunların AB dışındaki bölgeleri de dâhil edecek şekilde genişlemesi. Bu bütünleşme sürecini meşrulaştırmak için de çeşitli teoriler ortaya atıldı veya bazı bütünleşme teorileri bu süreçleri meşrulaştırmak için kullanıldı; 1980'lerden itibaren AB'nin bütünleşmesinin hızlanmasıyla bu teoriler de gelişti ve büyük ölçüde AB bütünleşmesiyle ilgili süreçlerin sorgulanmasını, bunlara eleştirel yaklaşılmasını engellemeye dönük ideolojik ve kültürel bir ortam yarattı. Halbuki bu yaklaşımlar Euro bölgesinin çevre ülkelerinin gerçekliğini açıklamaktan uzaktır. Bu çalışma, İrlanda, İspanya, Portekiz ve Yunanistan'ın dünya ekonomisi içindeki yerlerini, bu ülkelere gerçekleşen sermaye hareketleri ile bunların sabit sermaye yatırımı yaratma kapasitelerini, bu durumun bu ülkelerin emek maliyetlerini nasıl etkilediğini inceleyerek Avrupa bütünleşmesine dair anaakım yaklaşımların sunduğu çerçevenin yanıltıcı olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Özellikle Euro bölgesinin hayata geçmesinin ardından, incelenen ülkelerin rekabet güçleri aşınmış, ücretlilerin gelirleri düşmüş, sermaye akımları sabit sermaye yatırımlarına dönüşmemiş, imalat sanayileri yüksek teknolojili ve katma değer yaratan bir yapıdan uzak kalmıştır. Euro bölgesi krizi de bu eğilimleri (özellikle ücretlerin baskılanması konusunda) daha da kuvvetlendirmiştir. Krize karşı çevre ülkelere dayatılan politikalar da mevcut çelişkileri yeniden üretme eğilimindedir.

A construção da moeda única apresenta falhas ao nível dos mecanismos que deveriam garantir a convergência macroeconómica entre os países membros da União Europeia. Menos conhecidas e analisadas são as falhas na construção política, ou seja, na estrutura de gestão e tomada de decisões: uma estrutura cujo sistema de incentivos faz para que não exista um interesse comum na estabilização dos desequilíbrios macroeconómicos entre os Estados-membros, e que por isso põe em risco a estabilidade a médio prazo da zona euro. Duas são as possíveis soluções ao nível da estrutura política: uma "união política", isto é, uma maior integração que inclua mecanismos supranacionais de legitimidade democrática, ou uma diferente estrutura de regras no contexto da governança atual, que crie um interesse comum na estabilização da moeda única. O artigo expõe estas duas opções, analisa as propostas da Comissão perante estas duas perspetivas, e avalia os obstáculos no caminho das reformas de um ponto de vista das preferências dos governos dos mais influentes países membros..pt † A pesquisa que está na base do presente artigo foi financiada pela FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UID/FIL/00183/2013).

The fiscal architecture of the common currency was flawed in several respects from the very start. Less well known are the flaws in the political architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union. This is characterised by a system of incentives that thwarts all efforts towards an overall macroeconomic stabilisation of the Eurozone. There are two possible solutions to this problem: one is the political union, to be brought about by means of an additional transfer of economic and fiscal sovereignty and a corresponding mechanism of political legitimacy, or different fiscal rules within the current structure of political governance. The essay expounds upon these two options while taking into account the European Commission's most recent reform proposals. It furthermore assesses the hurdles that the latter will have to overcome against the background of the preferences of the most influential Member States.

The Eurocrisis displays an astonishing similarity to the causes of the Great Depression in the form of massive current account imbalances, destabilising capital flows, financial fragility, and the commitment to defending a fixed exchange rate arrangement by means of austerity and internal devaluation. From the interwar economic and political disaster Europe eventually drew the lesson that internal balance had to enjoy priority over external balance, giving rise to a three-decade long period of unprecedented economic growth after the Second World War. As Europe has again stumbled into many of the policy errors that caused the Great Depression, it will need to relearn some of these lessons. In particular, the paper suggests that Europeanisation has gone too far and that rather than completing the monetary Union, Europe's prosperity and political stability would be better served by compartmentalisation of financial markets, vertical industrial policies and an escape clause in the common currency allowing for temporary exit in case of fundamental disequilibria.

An easyJet inflight magazine article offers a great example of how ideology – in the Marxist sense of the word, i.e. a mystification of reality which ensures the continuous dominance of the ruling class – works, and why in this day and age it is a much more effective tool for shaping the forces of material and mental production than old-fashioned propaganda.

Europe's Transforming Identity. Part 1 of the book Islam and Tolerance in Wider Europe (ed. Pamela Kilpadi) including the articles:
* 'What Values for Europe?' by Michael Emerson
* 'The Role of Islam in Europe: Multiple Crises?' by Amel Boubekeur and Samir Amghar
* 'The Southern Gate to Fortress Europe' by Rutvica Andrijasevic

Many scholars have contributed to ongoing debates about the competition between the dollar and the euro for global monetary dominance. Few have added as much value as Miguel Otero-Iglesias with his systematic and original survey of the views of financial elites in major emerging market economies. Where conventional interpretations emphasize material "reality," Otero-Iglesias's ideational analysis clearly demonstrates how important it is to consider as well how "reality" is perceived and framed by key actors. The euro may be structurally weak, limiting its "hard" power. But at the cognitive level of "soft" power, Otero-Iglesias suggests, Europe's money poses a significant challenge to America's greenback. This is an argument to be taken seriously.

Benjamin J. Cohen, Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Abstract
Romanian Abstract: Lucrarea are în vedere următoarele aspecte: prezentarea uniunii economice și monetare din perspectiva aderării unui stat membru la aceasta, și în particular elementele juridice privind aderarea României la zona euro, condițiile juridice și cadrul instituțional din România precum și posibile efecte juridice ale trecerii la euro, astfel cum acestea rezultă din dreptul comparat.

English Abstract: This paper focuses on the following issues: the presentation of the Economic and Monetary Union from the perspective of the accession of a Member State to it, and in particularhighliging the legal elements regarding the accession of Romania to the eurozone, the legal conditions and the institutional framework from Romania and possible legal effects of the changeover, as they result from the comparative law.


Note: Downloadable document is in Romanian.

Sandru, Daniel-Mihail, Cadrul juridic si institutional al aderarii la moneda euro. Starea de drept si de fapt in Romania (Legal and institutional framework for accession to the Euro currency. The state of art in Romania) (November 21, 2018). Revista Studii si cercetari juridice, an 7 (63), nr. 4, p. 507–523, Bucureşti, octombrie – decembrie, 2018.

The requirement for a collaborative effort to achieve a common set of security standards for use by entities that process, store or transport voter data. -More than 350,000 voting machines are used in the Unites States today in over 42 States (VerifiedVoting 2017). The rise in the use of electronic mediums has posed great concern for those voting and those running for office. In 2016, the State of Florida reported the targeted attempts by Russian hackers to infiltrate and manipulate electronic voting in as much as 67 elections offices. As well reporting from additional sources that as many as voter database compromises across 21 states and forensics discovery at attempts by hackers to infiltrate the networks of voting equipment vendors, local election boards, political parties and email and social media accounts for candidates.  The industry and cyber security community has not discovered a process to protect the most democratic process in the world to date – Voting remains a target held at risk. 2018 Elections are critical to moving the U.S. forward to recovery - Feel free to reach out if you need support or have any additional questions.

The EU is divided between member states that have adopted the euro and those that have not. This article looks at the issue of differentiated integration with particular reference to eurozone integration and the euro-outsiders. I explore the recent public debate in the UK on euro-outsiderness, comparing this with debates in Denmark. The article highlights some striking differences between the UK and Denmark when it comes to the actual management of euro-outsiderness in Brussels as well as some of the dilemmas facing euro-outsiders such as the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Poland as the EU struggles to exit its crises. Finally, I discuss the future of two-speed European integration and the UK's possible exit from the EU. The UK cannot escape the dilemma of favouring either influence or autonomy; whether the UK remains in or leaves the EU, it will need to allow the eurozone to proceed in order to prevent further eurozone crises.

We propose a New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model where a risk aversion shock enters a separable utility function. We analyze five periods from 1971 through 2011, each lasting for twenty years, to follow over time the dynamics of several parameters such as the risk aversion parameter; the Taylor rule coefficients; and the role of the risk aversion shock in output, inflation, interest rate, and real money balances in the Eurozone. Our analysis suggests that risk aversion was a more important component of output and real money balance dynamics between 2006 and 2011 than it was between 1971 and 2006, at least in the short run.

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s.collignon@lse.ac.uk



As nominal policy interest rates are hitting the lower zero bound in many industrialised countries, questions are raised about possible unintended consequences. This note argues that low interest rates reduce the long run rate of potential economic growth, but exiting “ultra-easy” policies now would be premature."

Poland committed to joining the euro when it
joined the European Union in 2004, although no
specific deadline was set for its entry into the
currency union. There was widespread popular and
political support for joining the euro at the time.
The accepted view, both in Poland and across
international institutions, was that joining the
currency union would yield net economic benefits
and speed up Poland’s development. It would also
forge a closer relationship with Europe. That view
was dealt a blow by the global financial and euro
crises. Adopting the euro became seen as a source
of macroeconomic instability while delivering
limited benefits in enhancing trade or lowering
borrowing costs. The diminished economic appeal for Poland to
adopt the euro is likely to continue. Poland has
benefited from high productivity growth as part of
economic convergence, and its growth potential
has been reinforced by structural reforms that have
raised educational standards. Moreover, Poland’s
trade share with the euro area has been declining as
the rest of the world has grown faster. Therefore,
there appears to be little economic incentive to join
the euro as long as Poland continues to prudently
manage its economy.

This article argues that the perception of a crisis in German-Greek relations that began with the „Greek crisis“ in the autumn of 2009 is the result of media coverage on both sides that indulged in football-style „us“ against „them“ generalizations and in national stereotypes, instead of conducting an adequately nuanced analysis. The paper examines instances of the strife between German and Greek print and online media during the period 2010-2012 and focuses on the discursive tropes that were used to invoke specific social, cultural, and historical images. While some German media stressed „Greek“ laziness, unreliability, and non-existent „Europeanness“, their Greek counterparts focused on Germany’s Nazi past, the memory of German occupation during World War II, and Greek sovereignty. This public discourse has increased the danger that politicians charged with making decisions in the crisis will be acting under pressure and on false or stereotypical premises. The changing image of Greece in the eyes of fellow Europeans might jeopardize Greece’s standing as a European nation.

A review for the LSE's Brexit Vote blog of The European Union in Crisis (by Desmond Dinan, Neill Nugent and William E. Paterson), the latest contribution to deal with the multi-dimensional nature of the EU’s crisis. it offers a solid starting point to understanding a Union which over the past few years has been tested as it has never been before.

The year 2002 would be remembered in the European Union as the year the ‘Euro’ officially became the common legal tender of the ‘Eurozone’ comprising presently of 19 member states. Exactly seven years after, a full blown banking and sovereign debt crisis was evident in the monetary union which raised fresh financial concerns the world over after that of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. The Eurozone debt crisis that caught the international community by surprise, began with the shocking revelation on the humongous external debt hovering over Greece. Afterwards, the ballooning debt-to-GDP ratio of other peripheral states in the Euro Area - Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain surfaced thus giving rise to the acronym G.I.I.P.S in reference to the five indebted countries in the Eurozone. This paper therefore examines the sovereign debt crisis of E.U member states belonging to the Eurozone and the effect it has had on their economic growth. With Greece as the case study, the nature, causes and rescue packages so far adopted at salvaging the Eurozone debt crisis since 2009 till date were duly accounted for via an historical and empirical approach which was heavily dependent on secondary sources of quantitative data.

Introductory chapter of PhD thesis: 'Why Not Default? The Structural Power of Finance in Sovereign Debt Crises.' Defended (without corrections) at the European University Institute in Florence on May 19, 2016.

This thesis aims to answer a simple question with far-reaching implications: why do heavily indebted peripheral states not default on their external debts more often? Building on case studies of sovereign debt crises in Mexico (1982-’89), Argentina (1999-’05) and Greece (2010-’15), the findings of this research demonstrate that the traditional explanations of debtor compliance proposed in the economics literature — centering on reputation, sanctions and democratic institutions — hold limited explanatory power.

Instead, the thesis spells out a political economy approach to sovereign debt that recognizes the importance of social conflicts and power struggles over the distribution of adjustment costs. In these conflicts, it is argued that finance possesses a unique advantage over indebted states: through their capacity to withhold the short-term credit lines on which the latter depend for their reproduction, lenders can inflict debilitating spillover costs that greatly limit the debtor’s room for maneuver. This structural power of finance has increased markedly as a result of globalization and financialization, and the main objective of this project is to identify the exact mechanisms through which it operates and the conditions under which it is effective and under which it breaks down.

The findings highlight the importance of debt concentration in the lending structure (which eases the formation of creditors’ cartels, strengthening market discipline); the exposure of big banks and institutional lenders in core countries (which compels creditor states and international financial institutions to intervene as lenders of last resort and provide emergency loans under strict policy conditionality); and the bridging role fulfilled by bankers and elites inside the borrowing country (which endows them with a privileged position in financial policymaking and internalizes fiscal discipline into the debtors’ state apparatus). The thesis concludes by spelling out the implications of these findings for the quality of democracy and the study of political economy more generally.

The legal and political dispute Iceland fought with the UK and Dutch governments over responsibilities of deposits in the fallen cross-border Icesave Bank in wake of the international financial crisis – which hit Iceland severely hard in autumn 2008 when its three oversized international banks fell – not only revealed inhered weakness of the European financial system but also led to profound crisis of diplomacy during the Credit Crunch. The legal ambiguity of responsibilities was testing understandings and interpretations of international law in cross-border finance. Not fitting squarely within EU- diplomatic- or financial law it can be argued that the case in its process illustrates contested and hybrid construction of legality as here is explored. Rajkovic et al, (2016) understand international legality as interrelated processes of social and interpretive contestation in the construction of what is understood as (legal) rule in the world. In this regard the Icesave dispute illustrates how larger and more powerful countries were politically able to pressure a much smaller state in time of crisis into abiding to their own interpretation of law and in doing so rallying behind them support of international organizations like the EU and the IMF.

The Icesave dispute was thus not only a matter of international law, but rather also a case of contestation between cross border actors over determination of authority during the crisis. By empirically studying the Icesave dispute this paper discusses a profound crisis of diplomacy and the political processes of international legality of the financial sector during the Credit Crunch. This can be coined as case of perfect legal storm in international relations; a crisis of public international law, diplomatic law, EU law and finance law. This case study traces the dynamics of how international legality is produced and remade during the course of this particular inter-state crisis and in doing so thus contributes to analysis of political construction of international legality.

The study deals with interpretive contest in international relations on what is considered legal, in this particular instance dispute of responsibility over guarantying deposits of a fallen cross border bank. In this case intersecting practices and expertise were to revolve in a struggle over cross border insolvency law. By pressuring the Icelandic government into accepting responsibility of the fallen bank in UK and the Netherlands this was an international push towards sovereign socialization of private debt through twists of circumstances and practise.

At its core, perhaps, this is a study of struggle over who decides authoritative interpretations, of what in this particular instance is understood as international legality, which is constructed, construed and contested through multi-actor and multi-level interaction of multi-national relations.

La Unión Europea (UE) se encuentra en las horas más bajas de su historia, en una “crisis existencial” que pone en cuestión su racionalidad, legitimidad, relevancia y viabilidad. Esa crisis afecta al menos a cuatro dimensiones substantivas del proyecto europeo:

- La primera se refiere a la UE como proyecto económico capaz de promover la estabilidad, el crecimiento y la competitividad internacional, generado empleo y bienestar a través, primordialmente, de la experiencia más avanzada del mundo de integración económica.

- La segunda dimensión alude a la UE como experiencia federal y modelo político singular de gobernanza democrática cosmopolita y redefinición “federalizante” de la soberanía, la democracia y la ciudadanía más allá del tradicional Estado-nación.

- La tercera se refiere a la “Europa social” y al papel de la UE como mecanismo de solidaridad transnacional, a través de las políticas de cohesión económica, social y territorial.

- Finalmente, la cuarta dimensión se refiere a su papel como actor global en un sistema internacional caracterizado por rápidos e intensos procesos de cambio de poder.

Este trabajo examina los dilemas que la Unión enfrenta en cada una de estas cuatro dimensiones, que se relacionan con desafíos externos y en particular con los procesos de globalización y de cambio de poder a escala mundial, así como con sus limitaciones internas en el plano político e institucional. La resolución de esos dilemas pueden llevar a la Unión a tres posibles escenarios: uno, la paulatina renacionalización de la política y la economía, sobre la falsa premisa del control nacional; dos, la conversión de la moneda única y las instituciones de la UE en un mecanismo disciplinario al servicio de los mercados financieros, fracturando el binomio disciplina-solidaridad que ha caracterizado históricamente el proyecto europeo; o bien, como tercer escenario posible, la redefinición de la UE como proyecto de gobernanza efectiva de la globalización, garantizando la cohesión y la solidaridad intraeuropea.

Dirk Ehnts beschäftigt sich in diesem Artikel mit der „Modern Monetary Theory“ (MMT) als einer in den USA und Kanada gegenwärtig sehr einflussreichen ökonomischen Strömung. In Deutschland fand diese bisher wenig Anerkennung. Insofern bietet dieser Beitrag Informationen und Einschätzungen, die sonst kaum zu bekommen sind. Bemerkenswert ist, dass der Autor bei seiner theoretischen Positionierung auf die Geldtheorie von Georg Friedrich Knapp aus dem Jahre 1905 rekurriert und das zirkulierende Geld als „Staatsgeld“ ansieht. Auch ist es vor dem Hintergrund der viel diskutierten Geldpolitik der Europäischen Zentralbank reizvoll zu erfahren, wie geldpolitische Prozesse und Innovationen im Lichte der MMT interpretiert werden.

NB This is a pre-print - prior to refereeing and revision. Combining international political theory and EU studies, Richard Bellamy provides an original account of the democratic legitimacy of international organisations. He proposes a new interpretation of the EU's democratic failings and how they might be addressed. Drawing on the republican theory of freedom as non-domination, Bellamy proposes a way to combine national popular sovereignty with the pursuit of fair and equitable relations of non-domination among states and their citizens. Applying this approach to the EU, Bellamy shows that its democratic failings lie not with the democratic deficit at the EU level but with a democratic disconnect at the member state level. Rather than shifting democratic authority to the European Parliament, this book argues that the EU needs to reconnect with the different 'demoi' of the member states by empowering national parliaments in the EU policy-making process.

The following work aims to propose an organic reconstruction of the phenomenon of the withdrawal from the European Union. Such work, at this level of systematicity, has never been carried out by the doctrine: the reason for this is that the interested ones never concerned themselves with the phenomenon of leaving the Union, at least until recently, before the british case finally exploded. The main cause is that the attention of scholars has always been arranged on the enlargement process of the Union, through the unstoppable march of the demands of accession, made by new candidate countries in order to obtain the European membership. To succeed in analyzing in detail such a delicate subject, the work has been developed in degrees, and decreasing, from the general to the particular. In the first chapter, the study focused on the possibility of withdrawing from international organizations, through the analysis of their Statutes and the views of doctrine and jurisprudence; in the second case, instead, it has been examined  the possibility of a Member State to withdraw from the Union, currently regulated in art. 50 TEU: the chapter covers the stages of the historical construction of the layout and deepens all the dynamics associated with the exit of a Member Country from the EU, from the procedures to the possible consequences. The third chapter considers the possibility of withdrawing from the euro and scans the links that may occur between the withdrawal from the Union and the one from the European Monetary Union alone. Finally, in the fourth and last chapter, the theme under the magnifying glass is an application case of the theory developed and deployed so far: the withdrawal from the European Union by the United Kingdom, better known as Brexit. 

La teoria delle Aree Valutarie Ottimali (AVO, in inglese “Optimum Currency Area”) sta vivendo una notorietà particolarmente elevata dallo scoppio della crisi dell'euro. Economisti di diverse estrazioni, e numerosi studi dei maggiori organismi internazionali, hanno individuato nell'eurozona un'“area valutaria pessima” e spiegato in questo modo la tendenza al collasso della moneta unica europea. Eppure, a ben vedere, la teoria delle AVO non sembra convincente circa le difficoltà dell'euro.

Nell'articolo che proponiamo (scarica il PDF) partiamo mostrando che la teoria si basa sui presupposti del paradigma teorico neoclassico: le preferenze del consumatore, la dotazione dei fattori produttivi, l'esistenza di un tasso “naturale” di interesse che equilibra investimenti e risparmi, la teoria quantitativa della moneta. Non sorprende quindi che le politiche che ne discendono siano in larga parte basate su una modifica delle condizioni dell'offerta: mobilità del fattore lavoro (cioè l'emigrazione dei disoccupati da una regione depressa) e del capitale, flessibilità salariale, maggiore concorrenza per indurre l'abbassamento dei costi.

Esaminando i "criteri" in base ai quali un'area valutaria può considerarsi ottimale, mostriamo che essi non sembrano dare una spiegazione convincente della crisi dell'euro. Rifacendoci alla letteratura, mainstream ed eterodossa, evidenziamo la contraddittorietà di tali criteri sia rispetto a quanto avvenuto nell'eurozona, sia in una situazione teorica. In particolare ci concentriamo sulla mobilità delle merci e dei capitali, che può produrre maggiori divergenze tra le regioni di un'area valutaria, e sulla mobilità del fattore lavoro, ritenuta dalla teoria AVO un elemento riequilibrante. Al contrario, mostriamo che il "rimedio" dell'emigrazione dei disoccupati da una regione in crisi verso le regioni più forti, non determina necessariamente un riequilibrio ma al contrario può esacerbare le divergenze pregresse.

La conclusione della nostra argomentazione è che l'unico "criterio" determinante per la stabilità di un'area valutaria è la presenza di uno Stato con un largo bilancio pubblico e una banca centrale prestatrice di ultima istanza e "garante" del debito pubblico (esattamente ciò che manca all'eurozona). Questo "criterio" determinante è stato diluito in un insieme di altri presupposti, in larga parte irrilevanti o persino contraddittori. Ne risulta che la teoria delle AVO, che si consideri la sua formulazione originaria o la sua evoluzione "endogena", non appare in grado né di spiegare la crisi dell'euro né di indicare una soluzione.

The crucial question of the Habermas-Streeck debate on the crisis in Europe was, ‘Should the political forces resisting the de-democratization of capitalism strive for renewal of the European Union through its deeper integration, as per Habremas, or for peaceful dissolution of the European Union and a retreat to a national state, as per Streeck?’ In this article, the arguments of each author are examined against the background of the left-wing Syriza party’s challenge to European austerity in Greece. Three conclusions are drawn. First, Syriza’s nationally charged populism in opposition coincided with Streeck’s considerations. Second, Syriza’s governmental strategy reflected Habermas’s views. Third, Syriza’s sudden rise to power and its subsequent failure to reverse the austerity both substantiate Streeck’s thesis that at the present juncture renationalization of economic policy represents a condition of the possibility for egalitarian politics in Europe.

Il presente volume intende ripercorrere la storia del sistema economico italiano dalle sue origini, cercando di spiegare al lettore le ragioni dell'eterna crisi del debito pubblico italiano. La spina dorsale del lavoro è costituita dalle vicende anche giudiziarie, in gran parte dimenticate, del colosso italiano della chimica: da una parte la Montedison, le congiure di palazzo, le tangenti e i legami tra questa famosa azienda pubblica e le aziende di armi americane, dall'altro la SIR di Rovelli, "gli assegni del presidente", il Comitato statale per il suo salvataggio e la recente storia della sua acquisizione da parte del nuovo motore del capitalismo di Stato italiano: Fintecna.
Su Amazon è ora disponibile la versione completa cartacea: https://www.amazon.it/dp/1517519934

La monografia è frutto di un’opera di rielaborazione della tesi di Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza dell’Autore. L’Autore, dopo la disamina dell’origine storica e della disciplina giuridica del mandato d’arresto europeo (c.d. MAE), introdotto dalla decisione quadro 2002/584/GAI, con particolare riferimento alla legge d’attuazione nell’ordinamento italiano e alle differenze dell’istituto con l’estradizione, tratta delle violazioni sul piano dei diritti fondamentali che ha comportato l’introduzione del MAE. In particolare, il lavoro si concentra sul ridimensionamento del principio di doppia incriminazione, sull’inosservanza del principio di tassatività della legge penale, violazione dimostrata anche attraverso l’ausilio dell’analisi comparata di alcune fattispecie di reato così come disciplinate in alcuni Paesi europei, sul superamento del divieto di estradizione per un reato politico, nonché sulla scarna disciplina dettata dal legislatore nella decisione quadro introduttiva del MAE in tema di “giusto processo”. L’Autore, inoltre, procede ad un’attenta analisi della giurisprudenza della Corte di Giustizia europea, delle Corti Costituzionali degli Stati membri dell’UE, nonché della Corte di Cassazione italiana, analisi condotta con una costante attenzione alla giurisprudenza in tema di rispetto dei diritti fondamentali. Per la risoluzione di tali problemi sul piano delle violazioni ai diritti e garanzie fondamentali causate dalla disciplina del MAE, sono state proposte due soluzioni alternative in una prospettiva de iure condendo: la prima, in un’ottica maggiormente aderente all’attuale momento storico e politico dell’Unione europea, è volta ad una modifica della decisione quadro; la seconda auspica, in un prossimo futuro, alla creazione di un diritto penale e processuale europeo.

This book discusses how the global financial crisis induced the ‘Great Recession’ and triggered problems within the eurozone regarding sovereign debt. The authors argue that the failure of the eurozone to meet any convergence criteria, together with unjustified emphasis placed upon unproven rules and institutions derived from contemporary neoliberal macroeconomic thinking, was an accident waiting to happen. Additionally, a series of potential remedies is proposed, ranging from a critical evaluation of solutions that the EU has already instigated (moral suasion and financial relief measures) together with a series of alternative propositions (fiscal federalism and a ‘European Clearing Union’). Moreover, the analysis is extended to the collapse of the eurozone and to options for national economic self-governance.

The evolution of money and banking is at the cusp of a paradigm shift in the 21st century.  The introduction of digital currency built on blockchain technology enables a distributed, peer-to-peer payment system ideal for the decentralized economy of the internet age.  The role of central banks in this context necessitates change in order to ensure monetary and financial stability within the established management and purpose of fiat monies.  The model of an interest-bearing central bank digital currency is argued to be a viable and perhaps imperative development that central banks must embrace in order to maintain independence.  The European Central Bank in particular has a pressing need to fulfill this charge given the guidance of completing the economic and monetary union as well as realizing the digital single market strategy.

This paper covers four main areas: the motivation for capital markets union (CMU) and the expected benefits for the functioning of the European economy and financial system; the road map for its implementation and the obstacles and challenges the CMU project is facing in view of the Brexit vote; the role of the European Securities and Markets Authority versus national supervisors; and the steps taken so far in implementing the European Commission’s action plan aimed at identifying and removing obstacles to cross-border capital markets transactions, as well as the policy priorities and the sequencing of reforms given the complexity of the task ahead. The paper concludes that Brexit clearly represents a setback, as the United Kingdom has by far the deepest and most liquid capital markets in the European Union, but it also provides an opportunity to launch a more ambitious CMU agenda encompassing the remaining 27 EU members.

The articles in this monograph are written in the following language All of them contain summaries in both languages and have been grouped into three sections. The first section deals with the challenges of the euro area and overcoming the current crisis. The reader will find the results of research on the institutionalisation of the euro area, as well as economic protectionism and the labour market in the member states of the euro area. The first part of the book is also devoted to the analysis of the euro area in the light of the assumptions of the theory of an optimal currency area, its subject is also a series of considerations on mechanisms and actions aimed at exiting the crisis and ensuring the stability of the area - among others, the issues of the uniform monetary policy of the European Central Bank in the context of heterogeneity of the member states, uniform supervision over banks are discussed. and regulatory discipline in the euro area.
The second section is entitled "Competitiveness of the European Union and its Member States" and contains twelve studies on various pervasive aspects of the development and competitiveness of the European Union. These include studies on macroeconomic imbalances, the banking and financial sector, convergence of income levels in member countries, as well as international exchange and EU competitiveness in a global context. Some articles deal with the issue of Poland's competitiveness in the EU, among others in terms of export and absorption of EU funds.
The last part of the book titled "Poland's export and absorption of EU funds" is devoted to the issue of Poland's competitiveness in the EU, among others in terms of export and absorption of EU funds. The last part of the book "Perspectives and challenges of European integration" concentrates texts whose authors pose and attempt to answer important questions about the future of the European Union, in many dimensions of its functioning, including non-economic ones. The authors consider demographic problems, social and cultural diversity, the issue of consumption, economic freedom and economic education. Also in this section, the reader will find another portion of knowledge about the financial crisis and regulations in the EU and the euro area in relation to the crisis.
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Artykuły zamieszczone w tym opracowaniu monograficznym zostały napisane w języku polskim bądź angielskim, przy czym wszystkie zawierają streszczenia w obu językach i zostały pogrupowane w trzy sekcje. Pierwsza z nich podejmuje problematykę wyzwań strefy euro oraz przezwyciężania obecnego kryzysu. Czytelnik odnajdzie w niej wyniki badań na temat instytucjonalizacji strefy euro, a także protekcjonizmu gospodarczego i rynku pracy w krajach członkowskich strefy. Pierwsza część książki poświęcona jest również analizom strefy euro w świetle założeń teorii optymalnego obszaru walutowego, jej przedmiotem jest także szereg rozważań na temat mechanizmów i działań służących wychodzeniu z kryzysu i zapewnieniu stabilności strefy – m.in. podejmowane są zagadnienia jednolitej polityki pieniężnej Europejskiego Banku Centralnego w kontekście heterogeniczności krajów członkowskich, jednolitego nadzoru nad bankami oraz dyscypliny regulacyjnej w strefie euro.
Druga sekcja została zatytułowana „konkurencyjność Unii Europejskiej i krajów członkowskich”i znajduje się w niej dwanaście opracowań poświęconych różnorodnym, przenikającym się aspektom rozwoju i konkurencyjności Unii Europejskiej. Są wśród nich badania dotyczące nierównowag makroekonomicznych, sektora bankowego i finansowego, konwergencji poziomu dochodu w krajach członkowskich, a także wymiany międzynarodowej i konkurencyjności UE w kontekście globalnym. Część artykułów podejmuje problematykę konkurencyjności Polski w UE, m.in. w aspekcie eksportu oraz absorpcji funduszy UE.
Ostatnia część książki pt. „Perspektywy i wyzwania integracji europejskiej” skupia teksty, których autorzy stawiają i podejmują próbę odpowiedzi na ważne pytania o przyszłość Unii Europejskiej, w wielu wymiarach jej funkcjonowania, także pozaekonomicznych. Autorzy rozważają problemy demograficzne, różnorodności społecznej i kulturowej, zagadnienie konsumpcji, kwestie wolności gospodarczej oraz edukacji ekonomicznej. Również i w tej sekcji Czytelnik znajdzie kolejną porcję wiedzy z zakresu kryzysu finansowego oraz regulacji w UE i strefie euro w związku z kryzysem.

by Remy Davison, Jean Monnet Chair in Politics and Economics, Monash University. . Published by Australian Book Review, December 2018.
Link: https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2018/233-december-2018-no-407/5226-remy-davison-reviews-crashed-how-a-decade-of-financial-crises-changed-the-world-by-adam-tooze

In 1996 the pre-eminent political economist Susan Strange published her final book, The Retreat of the State. Strange had dedicated most of her career to studying the ability of the state to tame the power of international finance. The nexus between state and firm had empowered the United States for more than a century; Washington reconstructed the world order after 1945, resurrecting its former enemies, Tokyo and Berlin, to be behemoths once again. For Strange, the battle was lost in the late twentieth century: the state, she asserts, was headlong in a ‘strategic retreat’, captured by the tsunami of global capital.

Die Veränderungen des Kapitalismus haben sich aus seinen organischen Krisen und ihrem staatlichen Management ergeben. Aus der Großen Depression entstand der zwischenimperialistische Organisierte Kapitalismus, aus der Weltwirtschaftskrise der Fordismus und aus dessen Großkrise der globalisierte Finanzmarktkapitalismus. Die Frage stellt sich: Ist aus der heutigen Formationskrise bereits ein neuer Kapitalismus entstanden?