Christine Lagarde has more or less announced last Thursday that European policy rates will be cut at the June 6 meeting of the Governing Council.

Last January the EMU, the European Monetary Union, had turned twenty-five. Overall, the euro has been a successful project which has not only shown its

Poor economic growth is presently one of Germany’s main topics in public policy discussions. Since the average income is actually rather high, an acceleration of

Anyone reading this headline will probably think that I am naïve, without a sense of today’s political realities. Maybe, but historically and even culturally Russia

The topic is once again part of the annual wage negotiations in Germany. If the average income is high, historically and in international comparison, the

It’s a phenomenon that cannot easily be explained: labor markets in the countries of the euro area have been robust for many years – the

Most people in the United States and the euro area are convinced that inflation is still very high. This is not so. Consumer prices have

The German government plans to raise the price of CO2 emissions year after year, as an incentive for consumers and business to reduce their consumption of

If financial investors accept, for the next ten years, a yield of just 2.2% on their holdings of German government bonds, while ECB policy rates

The Federal Republic has rock-solid public finances, especially in comparison to other large industrialized countries. Quite surprising then that the media are dominated by a

As long as the difference in the standard of living between OECD countries and the rest of the world remains large there will be strong

Monday was big data day in Germany. Third quarter real GDP came out a little better than expected, at -0.1% q/q s.a. and -0.4% y/y.