...EUROZONE CRISIS ABSTRACT Euro crisis was not fortunate. It was something that could be avoided if proper care was taken. The European sovereign debt crisis has emerged out of a situation that has made it difficult or impossible for some countries in the euro area to re-finance their government debt without the assistance of third party. It was not only the government sector that lead to this crisis but major cause of it was the private sectors taking up too much of loans. The report also states the impact of euro zone crisis on the world and the India. The Eurozone crisis is systemic in nature. It is a result of policy failures in the way European Monetary Union (EMU) was designed, constructed and implemented. In particular, the crisis is a consequence of the failure to put in place certain necessary institutional components. INTRODUCTION The global economy has experienced slow growth since the U.S. financial crisis of 2008-2009, which has exposed the unsustainable fiscal policies of countries in Europe and around the globe. Greece, which spent heartily for years and failed to undertake fiscal reforms, was one of the first to feel the pinch of weaker growth. When growth slows, so do tax revenues – making high budget deficits unsustainable. The result was that the new Prime Minister George Papandreou, in late 2009, was forced to announce that previous governments had failed to reveal the size of the nation’s deficits. In truth, Greece’s debts were so large that they actually...
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...of Illustrations 3 Executive Summary 4 1.0 Introduction 5 2.0 The Economic Cost and Benefit for State Membership of the EMU 5 2.1 Benefits of EMU Membership & Mechanisms 5 2.2 Costs of EMU Membership 7 3.0 Contextual Factors: The Profusion of Dept 10 3.1 The Eurozone Crisis 10 3.3 Greece- The Forefront of the Euro Area Crisis 13 4.0 Alternate Policies and the Effective Consequences 15 4.1 Predicament 15 4.2 Abetting Dependent on Austerity 16 4.3 Creditor-Led Default 17 4.4 Debtor-led Default and Greek Haircuts 19 4.5 Greek Exit 20 5.0 Recommendation 21 Appendices: Appendix 1: Preferential liberalization References List of Illustrations Pg. Illustration 1: The cost of EMU- Diminishing Domestic Flexibility to Asymmetric Macro Shocks 7 Illustration 2: Cost and benefit of Monetary Unions 9 Illustration 3: Evolution of Nominal Unit Labor Costs in the Eurozone Pre to the US Credit Crunch 9 Illustration 4: Current Account Balances in Percentage GDP 10 Illustration 5: Core Bank Exposure to the Weaker Eurozone Member States 12 Illustration 5: Holders of Greek Government Bonds and Dept (in billion Euro) 16 Executive Summary The standing Economic and Finance minister of Germany has commissioned the policy paper for the forthcoming Council of Economic and Finance ministers meeting. The policy undertakes a consideration...
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...Critically analyse the current state of the European Monetary Union. The European Monetary Union or the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is the successor to its predecessor: The European Monetary System, and attempts to deliver an economic system which is unified and cohesive for all the members of the European Union. Perhaps the most notable and drastic change implemented under this systematic collection of policies is the adoption of the Euro currency over the national currencies of the member states out of which only the United Kingdom and Denmark have chosen to not follow in the footsteps of their fellow member countries. The European Monetary Union is essentially a complex but involved coordination of a common monetary policy amongst all members of the European union, accommodating fiscal and economic policies and most notably the currency common to all members, the Euro. This decision to form an exclusive and unified front was undertaken in December, of 1991, in the city of Maastricht in Netherlands and was later more firmly integrated in the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union. It has been designed as a tool to implement the full economic integration of the European Union and to complete the integration as one system, which started in 1957. Through this integration, the European Union hopes to gain the benefits of having a larger sized failsafe net, internal and cohesive efficiency combined together with the European Monetary Union, it would provide...
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...Financial Markets and Institutions: Sovereign Debt Crisis By Aims of the research To examine and analyse the impact of Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis on financial markets and institutions in the UK. To determine the areas affected by the crisis and at what level Reasons of choosing the topic To explore the effects of the Sovereign Debt Crises on the Eurozone if one of the member states defaulted and the magnitude of the spill over effect on other nations in EU. This area of study is of great interest not only for the wider public, but for policy makers alike. It can be argued that in comparison to other monetary unions, such as the U.S, the Eurozone countries are far from being economically integrated, let alone politically integrated. Objectives of the research To have insight into Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis and to examine its consequences on the UK economy. To explore the impact of Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis on the financial management, auditing and reporting practices of UK based financial markets and institutions. To compare pre and post performance of UK financial markets and institutions as a result of Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis. Summary of the articles Arghyrou and Tsoukalas (2010) Luff and Peacegood (2012) Duncan (2011) Veron (2012) Arroyo (2011) Arghyrou and Tsoukalas (2010) Outlined the main cause and trigger of the Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis. Defined...
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...European Fiscal Policy: Coordination of fiscal policy in Eurozone Wibowo Suhaidi (1235036) Tilburg University Course: Financial Economics Professor: S.C.W. Eijffinger October 2011 ABSTRACT The Stability and Growth pack has been discussed extensively in determining whether it is sufficient to undermine fiscal policy coordination in the Eurozone. Even before the recent sovereign debt crisis hitting the Eurozone the SGP has been in much of critics and the current situation calls for deeper analysis on the SGP and whether more coordinated fiscal policy in Eurozone is necessary in strengthening fiscal policy framework. This paper analyzes the implementation of fiscal policy in Eurozone with the SGP as the guideline and found out that despite effectively maintain the budgetary balances of Eurozone countries, the SGP failed to deliver overall fiscal stability. Therefore, a more coordinated form of fiscal policy is required in order to achieve the goal of fiscal stability in Eurozone. 1 I. Introduction The formation of European Monetary Union and the adoption of Euro as the single currency have the consequence that member countries are losing their monetary policy independence at the national scope. Therefore, one possible solution is to use fiscal policy in order to mitigate the asymmetric shocks, as fiscal policy is still on the hand of the national government of each member countries. However, from the Monetary Union point of view it is not desirable to...
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...Topic: PIIGS (European debt crisis) 吳宇綸D0131292 劉昱顯D0131156 王謙 周雋彥D0125599 Contents 1. Introduction 2. Overview of the European sovereign debt problem 3. Relief measures of the European sovereign debt crisis 4. European debt crisis 5. Conclusion 6. References I. Introduction The PIIGS is a group that composed of five countries that have some commonality in location and economic environments. In this case, PIIGS includes Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. The countries which be mentioned are all part of European Union members and have been noted for having weak economics and bad situation of financial problems. In 2008, economic crisis came to all over the world, during the worldwide economic crisis, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain began to come out the grave and serious concern in the European Union refer to the enormous amount of sovereign debt that they were carrying. The problem with the PIIGS is that speculators dropped, compounding their debt issues and the situation might be much more worse. Many European Union members were also unwilling to rescue these struggling nations although when it became very clear that assistance would be needed. The sovereign debt crisis sparked a number of conversations about reforming financial policy in the European Union to prevent similar problems in the future. The members of PIIGS felt displeasure at the negative allusions and some have...
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...The Euro Crisis According to Wikipedia (2012), the Euro Zone is comprised of 17 members that have accepted the euro as their only method of payment for goods and services. Monetary policy and management of inflation levels is governed by the ECB (European Central Bank) which consists of a president and board originating from central banks within the area. Since the late 2000's the Euro zone has experienced financial troubles mainly resulting from the varying degrees of difference between fiscal and monetary policy within each country. The majority of the debt can be attributed to the increase in both public and government debt around the globe as well as the arising debt within the euro zone. Some countries were noted for their involvement in the property crisis while other countries including Greece developed most of their financial obligations from increased public sector wages and pension contributions at an unsustainable level. As the desire for higher yielding investments expanded, many investors sought global markets as those offered by the U.S. Treasury. Norbert Walter (2012) argues that different growth rates, employment levels and unit labor costs have attributed to the euro crisis leading to heightened risk premiums and increased capital flights to those with lower risk assessments. Trade imbalances resulted from rising labor costs within several countries as well as accumulation of trade surpluses between those with the same currency that prevented appreciation...
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...Table of Contens Introduction 2 1. Foundation of Euro Zone 2 1.1. Background 2 1.2. Optimum Currency Area 3 1.3. Is Europe an Optimum Currency Area? 5 2. Account imbalance in Eurozone 6 2.1. Captial inflow from outside of eurozone 7 2.2. Bond interest rate convergence after eurozone introduction, it increase raising capital of periphery countries. 10 2.3. Price and unit labor cost increase in periphery countries -> competitiveness loss 11 3. Lehman Brothers 14 3.1. Reasons for Bankruptcy 14 3.2. LEVERAGE 15 3.3. LIQUIDITY 15 3.4. LOSSES 15 3.5. Final words 16 4. Greece Financial Crisis 16 4.1. Current Greece Financial Crisis 16 4.2. Greece before Financial Crisis 18 4.3. Industry 19 4.4. Tax Evasion 20 4.5. Populism and Corruption 22 5. Conclusion 23 5.1. Fundamental defect in the euro area – The impossible of independent monetary policy worsen the Economic Crisis of Europe. 23 5.2 Fundamental defect in the euro area – The Eurozone, which was established without financial alliance makes the financial crisis to the banking crisis. 26 REFERNECES 28 Introduction In June, whole world paid attention to Greek economic crisis. Greece, had undergone crisis because of financial crisis from United States since 2008, has evaded a default with two times of relief loans from European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB), and International Monetary Fund (IMF). But Greece announced that they couldn’t pay back the loan to IMF...
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...past year, and probably well in to the future, Greece is making headlines for less mythical reasons. Greece has earned the reputation of being that family member who can't seem to get out of money trouble and, in turn, is always asking for a loan. Also, like that same family member, the chances of getting that money back isn't high. Greece is on the brink of bankruptcy and many economists believe that they are already bankrupt. Greece's debt has reached 160% of their gross domestic product. When debt reaches 100% of gross domestic product, it is cause for major concern. What's worse, they don't have the capacity to do much about it. Greece can't artificially change the buying power of their currency because they are part of the eurozone, and they can't easily raise taxes because they don't have an efficient or well-developed system of collecting taxes. If all of that isn't enough, the citizens of Greece are growing increasingly upset with their government, which is causing political turmoil as well as economic. Greece owes so much money to other countries that each citizen owes $40,000! 1. We Live in a Global World The world is no longer a collection of countries, many of which have little effect on each other. Because of the large-scale innovations in technology over the past 20 years, the world is now completely interconnected. When something happens to one country, the entire globe is affected. How does Greece directly affect citizens on the other side of...
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...Introduction The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is mainly known as the global association that provides financing to member countries which are either developing countries that are in extreme poverty or countries that are faced with severe economic crisis who are no longer able to seek financing from other sources. Along with these loans, training and technical assistance on bettering economic management is offered. The IMF also provides policy advice to governments and central banks based on analysis of economic trends and cross-country experiences as well as research, statistics, forecasts, and analysis based on tracking of global, regional, and individual economies and markets. (About the IMF, n.d.) Currently there are 188 member countries of the IMF which makes the organization extremely important to virtually the whole world. Upon its creation at the Bretton Woods Conference there were 29 member countries who signed the Articles of Agreement in 1945. Between its creation and present day the IMF has helped countries deal with economic crises, and funded growth for many poverty stricken countries. As the IMF has grown into a major global economic body the role of the IMF has shifted from its first purpose of ensuring currency exchange rate stabilization and overseeing of the international monetary system to a major global lending organization and global economic stabilization force. (About IMF, n.d.) “Two years ago the world’s main international economic institution...
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...(IMF), commonly referred to as the ‘troika’, in May 2010 (Gemenis & Nezi 2015; Tseronis 2014). Afterwards, Greece required a second bailout programme in February 2012 and an agreement that led to a third bailout after marathon negotiations, on 13th July 2015. The aim of this essay is not only to describe and analyse how Greece reached a third bailout but also to investigate if this programme could be the end of the Greek and euro crisis. It is divided into three main sectors: the first one is about the previous bailout programmes as well as the reasons for their failure. The second one analyses the present crisis, the new bailout framework and its current effects in Greece. The last one illustrates the future for both Greece and the Eurozone, provided that the programme is implemented by the Greek government, and the dangers, which still exist, of torpedoing this new programme. Although the new bailout comprises immensely tough austerity measures, it...
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...Carlo Panico and Francesco Purificato POLITICAL ECONOMY RESEARCH INSTITUTE The Debt Crisis and the European Central Bank’s Role of Lender of Last Resort Gordon Hall 418 North Pleasant Street Amherst, MA 01002 January 2013 Phone: 413.545.6355 Fax: 413.577.0261 peri@econs.umass.edu www.peri.umass.edu WORKINGPAPER SERIES Number 306 The debt crisis and the European Central Bank’s role of lender of last resort by Carlo Panico and Francesco Purificato 1. The debate on the role of the central bank in the European debt crisis reveals the increasing difficulty of the authorities to apply sensible solutions. De Grauwe and Ji express this opinion by noticing that unfounded fears ‘have been widely advertised in Germany and have contributed to creating a view in that country that the German taxpayer is likely to become the victim of a money machine that rewards the profligacy of Southern European countries’ (De Grauwe and Ji, 2012, p. 1). These fears ‘have become powerful political forces that make it difficult for the governments to find rational solutions to the euro crisis’ (De Grauwe and Ji, 2012, p. 13). In order to appraise this opinion we discuss how the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Eurosystem have been intervening in favour of the Government sector. We start by noticing that central banks can play the role of lenders of last resort in favour of the banking and of the Government sector and that “moral hazard” problems emerge in both cases. Yet, they have only been mentioned...
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...The Political Economy of the Greek Debt Crisis: A Tale of Two Bailouts Silvia Ardagna and Francesco Caselli First draft: February 2012; Final version: January 2014 Abstract We review the events that led to the May 2010 and July 2011 bailout agreements. We interpret the bailouts as outcomes of political-economy equilibria. We argue that these equilibria were likely not on the Pareto frontier, and sketch political-economy arguments for why collective policy making in the Euro area may lead to suboptimal outcomes. Most modern sovereign debt crises have been managed in Washington, DC, through the combined e¤orts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US government. A distinctive feature of the crisis that has engulfed European sovereign-debt markets since the fall of 2009 has been that the IMF has played only a supporting (albeit important) role, while the management of the crisis has been driven by European institutions: the council of …nance ministers (ECOFIN), the European Council (EC, made up by all the heads of government of the European Union) and the European Central Bank (ECB). To the extent that the IMF is largely a technocratic institution (though of course not entirely immune from political in‡ uence) while ECOFIN and the EC are made up of politicians, one may expect the management of the crisis by the EC to be more a¤ected by electoral concerns. Furthermore, since there are 27 members to the EC, representing countries with potentially di¤erent interests, one...
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...Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland had accumulated huge budget deficits as well as increased public debt to the Gross Domestic product ratios. Portugal had an economic boom that was being sustained by the significantly lower borrowing rates. Nevertheless, it was hit by expeditious wage inflation which adversely affected the local companies’ competition with other foreign firms (CAI and LI, 2012). The sovereign debt crisis in European region has raised utmost concern about the financial contagion from numerous quarters especially the media and the agencies charged with the duty of making monetary policies. The intrinsic fear about the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe is that the act of default of a single sovereign country in the Eurozone would rapidly have spillover consequence that...
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...1. Background 2. Measuring Economic Activity 2.1 GDP 2.2 Investment 2.3 Consumption 2.4 Savings 2.5 Rate of interest 3. Foreign Capital 3.1 Comparative Trade Advantage 3.2 Trade Deficit 4. Long Run Factors affecting Economy 4.1 Politics 4.2 Education 4.3 Corruption 4.4 Population 4.5 Health 5. Monetary Policy and Inflation 5.1 Exchange Rates 5.2 Inflation 6. Labour Market and Unemployment 7. Conclusion 8. Bibliography 1. Background Portugal joined European Union in 1986 and the euro zone in 2002. It is a developed country and has a very high human development index with the current world ranking of 41. Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of “human development” measured in terms life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living in a country. However, in 2011, the country was hit by a sovereign debt crisis and is now under the bailout programme via the European Union – International Monetary Bailout Fund. As the country is under euro debt, the market pressure will continue to keep the state volatile. 2. Measuring Economic Activity 2.1 GDP Exhibit 2.0 Portugal using euro...
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