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181. Billions More for International Institutions? The ABCs of the General Capital Increases (GCI)

Author:
Todd Moss, Sarah Jane Staats, and Julia Barmeier
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The international financial institutions dramatically increased their lending in 2008–09 to help developing countries cope with the global financial crisis and support economic recovery. Today, these organizations are seeking billions of dollars in new funding. The IMF, which only a few years ago was losing clients and shedding staff, expanded by $750 billion last year. The World Bank and the four regional development banks for Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America are asking to increase their capital base by 30 to 200 percent. A general capital increase (GCI) for these development banks is an unusual request. A simultaneous GCI request is a once-in-a-generation occurrence.
Topic:
International Relations, International Monetary Fund, Financial Crisis, and World Bank
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America

182. Product Market Reforms in EU Countries: Are the methodology and evidence sufficiently robust?

Author:
Jacques Pelkmans
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
In the EU of today, economic policies, competition policy and regulation are expected to be 'evidence-based'. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss critically the most prominent empirical approach to the measurement of regulation: the OECD product market regulation (PMR) indicators. The paper sets out what exactly product market reforms are and the empirical regulatory indicators that have been developed by the OECD, the World Bank and others.
Topic:
Markets and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

183. Europe 2020 and the Financial System: Smaller is beautiful

Author:
Karel Lannoo
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Meeting Europe's 2020 objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth is even more of a challenge for the financial sector than for the EU as a whole. Smart, sustainable and inclusive growth is just the opposite of what the financial sector stood for, and how it continues to be perceived by the public. The huge regulatory agenda that is on the table should tame the financial sector, but whether it will help it to meet the Europe 2020 objectives is an open question (see European Commission, 2010a).
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Markets, Regional Cooperation, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

184. From National to European Regulation: Towards European Financial Supervisory Authorities

Author:
H. Onno Ruding
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Financial reform is needed now in the EU not only to reduce the likelihood of another financial crisis in the coming years but also to reinforce the internal market. A primary financial as well as political goal should be to create a truly single market in Europe for financial services and institutions. The current state of affairs is, however, still too far removed from this goal.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

185. Towards a Euro(pean) Monetary Fund

Author:
Daniel Gros and Thomas Mayer
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The case of Greece has ushered in the second phase of the financial crisis, namely that of sovereign default. Members of the euro area were supposed to be shielded from a financial market meltdown. But, after excess spending during the period of easy credit, several euro area members are now grappling with the implosion of credit-financed construction and consumption booms. Greece is the weakest of the weak links, given its high public debt (around 120% of GDP), compounded by a government budget deficit of almost 13% of GDP, a huge external deficit of 11% of GDP and the loss of credibility from its repeated cheating on budget reports.
Topic:
Economics, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

186. Regulatory Challenges for the EU Asset Management Industry

Author:
Karel Lannoo
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The European asset management industry is feeling squeezed from all sides, as a result of growing prudential, product and conduct regulation. A new Directive, UCITS IV, has only just been enacted, and already new challenges are emerging in the regulation of hedge and venture capital funds, the review of the regulatory regime for depositaries (or financial custodians) and amendments to the MiFID Directive.2 In addition, a new European supervisory framework is in the making, which implies much stricter controls on enforcement. These changes are taking place in the context of one of the largest declines suffered by the industry in the last two decades, from which many fund managers have not yet recovered. The era of light regulation is thus definitely over.
Topic:
Markets, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

187. In Defense of Europe's Grand Bargain

Author:
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Nothing is easier than pointing fingers at policymakers woring feverishly at 2 a.m. to contain a rapidly spreading financial crisis. Rarely has this been truer for the European Union than during the current crisis's amateurish policy management. Yet, what really matters is the final result, which is far more postive for Europe than the ugly sausage-making process.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

188. The Transatlantic Economy 2010: Annual Survey of Jobs, Trade and Investment between the United States and Europe

Author:
Daniel S. Hamilton and Joseph P. Quinlan
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Transatlantic Relations
Abstract:
Despite the recession, the United States and Europe remain each other's most important foreign commercial markets. No other commercial artery in the world is as integrated and fused as the transatlantic economy. We estimate that the transatlantic economy continues to generate close to $4.28 trillion in total commercial sales a year and employs up to 14 million workers in mutually “onshored” jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Global Recession, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

189. Will It Be Brussels, Berlin, or Financial Markets that Check Moral Hazard in Europe's Bailout Union? Most Likely the Latter!

Author:
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
So far so good for the European Union in preventing the Greek sovereign debt crisis from spiraling out of control in the short term. But with Greece in May 2010 requiring an unprecedented bailout from the European Union/IMF to avoid immediate default and 25 of the European Union's 27 member states currently subject to an “excessive deficit procedure” (European Commission 2010i), it remains evident that the European Union's existing fiscal surveillance framework patently failed both before and during the Great Recession and that Europe's leaders must head back to the drawing board for a required long term reform of the EU fiscal policy and surveillance framework.
Topic:
Debt, Economics, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe and Greece

190. The Transformational Impact of EMU and the Global Financial Crisis

Author:
Francesco Paolo Mongelli
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The headwinds facing the euro area are many and substantial: there is no pretence of denial. While most attention is correctly devoted to the size of rescue packages for some countries and the terms of crisis management and resolution mechanisms, we argue that these challenges must also be met from within the euro area. We are aided by a simple framework illustrating how the benefits the euro can generate depend on the degree of openness, flexibility and income correlation among euro area countries. Sharing the euro has steadily transformed euro area economies that are now deeply interconnected. This is generating largely benign effects that represent the intrinsic value of the euro area: it is a shared asset. Yet, such integration has provided the ground for the transmission of the sovereign crisis: through financial exposure, trade linkages and cross-country asset ownership.
Topic:
Economics, Global Recession, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe