Beware the Greeks bearing gifts

English2019. dec. 6.GOVERNOR MATOLCSY100WORDS

The German proposal for an EU-wide insurance /Wolfgang Munchau, FT, 11 November 2019/ is indeed deceptive. In exchange for that they might request to get rid of all the tools that all others built to survive the harmful side-effects of the failed economic policies of the EU in the last two decades.

Some members used taxation to counter-balance the lack of independent monetary policies, others let their banks to load up with their home country’s government bonds without any risk weights, some others completely scrapped the criteria of the Maastricht Treaty. Without all these tools/tricks they could not survive the loss of their independent monetary policy, the austerity policies of the EU and the lack of a coordinated EU-wide fiscal and monetary policy. 

Both, the EU and the euro are half-baked institutions, you cannot improve them without fully-fledged reforms.

Re “Why the EU should be wary of Scholz’s proposals”

Governor Matolcsy, MNB, the Central Bank of Hungary

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