# Blog

EU debt as insurance against catastrophic events in the euro area: the key questions and some answers

European Union debt can provide comprehensive insurance against the COVID-19 pandemic and can enable a macroeconomic response, even though EU debt is a liability for taxpayers in EU countries and therefore indirectly for...

25th April 2020 by Guntram Wolff 688 views

# podcast

Did the eurogroup save the day?

After its longest meeting ever, the Eurogroup reached an agreement yesterday evening. What does the agreement say? What does it mean in terms of the emergency reaction to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic? Wh...

14th April 2020 by Guntram Wolff 453 views

# Interviews

The ECB actions will be enough, but what matters now is the common fiscal policy

My interview in La Stampa is here...

19th August 2019 by Guntram Wolff 766 views

# Blog

Providing funding in resolution: Unfinished business even after Eurogroup agreement on EMU reform

The recent Eurogroup agreement on euro-area reform foresees a greater role for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) as a backstop to the banking union. This is a welcome step forward but important issues remain. We ass...

11th December 2018 by Maria Demertzis, Guntram Wolff 2339 views

# Blog

Eurozone or EU budget? Confronting a complex political question

This week’s European Commission reflection paper is the latest document to ponder a distinction between EU and euro-area budgets. But do we need to split the two, and what would each budget be used for? In this post, I p...

29th June 2017 by Guntram Wolff 2561 views

# Blog

What could a euro-area finance minister do?

With the election of Emmanuel Macron as president of France, the idea of a euro-area treasury and finance minister is back in the limelight. The election programme of Emmanuel Macron calls for “a budget for the euro area...

17th May 2017 by Guntram Wolff 4611 views

# Blog

Mere criticism of the ECB is no solution

This piece was first published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in a shortened version. It is also published in various national newspapers, including Le Monde. The eurozone remains in a deep, largely...

10th April 2016 by Marcel Fratzscher, Reint Gropp, Hans-Helmut Kotz, Jan Krahnen, Christian Odendahl, Beatrice Weder di Mauro, Guntram Wolff 2074 views

BY AGNÈS BÉNASSY-QUÉRÉ, XAVIER RAGOT AND GUNTRAM B. WOLFF

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# Publications

Which fiscal union for the euro area?

The construction of the euro area left aside the question of a fiscal union, but the crisis re-opened the debate. Read the full paper here. The paper was first published for the Conseil d’analyse économique in Fren...

18th February 2016 by AGNÈS BÉNASSY-QUÉRÉ, XAVIER RAGOT, GUNTRAM B. WOLFF 2281 views

# Blog

The ECB and politics in an era of low interest rates

This op-ed was originally published in the Handelsblatt, Nikkei Veritas and Nikkei Asian Review and Linkiesta. The ECB is often criticised for its low interest rate policy – especially in Germany, where this is fel...

26th November 2015 by Guntram Wolff 1883 views

# Blog

Europe’s fiscal wormhole

The International Monetary Fund now estimates a 30% risk of deflation in the eurozone, and growth figures within the monetary union continue to disappoint. But policymakers seem trapped in a cat’s cradle of economic, pol...

24th October 2014 by Guntram Wolff 2112 views