Month: December 2010

Europe’s Articles of Confederation

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In his Financial History of the United States (1879), Albert Bolles wrote “Thought but little more than a century has passed since the first Continental Congress met, in September, 1774, the financial history of the United States during the subsequent period is thickly strewn with financial experiments amply rewarding investigation.” Recent European Union efforts to … Read more

Building a better bailout

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Barry Eichengreen has some deservedly sharp words for European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the German government over the Irish “rescue package.”  Likening it to the punitive reparations burden imposed on German at the end of World War I, Eichengreen points out that the bailout does not, in fact, reduce Ireland’s debt one bit, … Read more