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RealTime Economic Issues Watch

A website forum in which senior fellows of the Peterson Institute for International Economics discuss and debate their responses to global economic and financial developments as they occur each day and offer insights that others might overlook.

Global Financial Crisis

Views on the current crisis in global financial markets, their impact on the real economy and the public policy choices confronting the United States and other countries.

Greece’s Financial Odyssey: Enter the IMF

by Anders Aslund | March 19th, 2010 | 04:50 pm

The news that Germany prefers the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to a European ad hoc solution for rescuing Greece from financial chaos is welcome for multiple reasons:

1. The IMF is the most appropriate authority to handle such a financial crisis. It would be little more than absurd for the [...]

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Greece, Act V: Talk is Cheap—and the Eurozone Likes It That Way

by Jacob Funk Kirkegaard | March 19th, 2010 | 10:05 am

For weeks European leaders have talked about eurozone solidarity and their promise of “determined and coordinated action, if needed” while supporting the successful austerity measures taken by Athens. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that words are what “euro solidarity” amounted to, and that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be [...]

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Greece, Act IV: No Reason to Beware Any Gifts or Bailout for the Greeks

by Jacob Funk Kirkegaard | March 18th, 2010 | 09:30 am

Judging from their communiqué on March 15 [pdf], the eurozone finance ministers have essentially decided to sit back, cross their fingers, and expect that in the end Greece will bail itself out and that no eurozone financial assistance will ultimately be needed.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the ministers got at least half a helping hand from Standard [...]

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The Global Accounting Make or Break

by Nicolas Véron | March 17th, 2010 | 12:58 pm

The report of the court-appointed examiner in Lehman Brothers’ US bankruptcy proceedings, issued on March 11, was a bombshell for the accounting profession by revealing how the failing investment bank hid liabilities in the tens of billions with the use of accounting shenanigans. Despite alerts from whistleblowers, auditors from Ernst & [...]

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The Speech for Which We Have Been Waiting

by Simon Johnson | March 11th, 2010 | 03:15 pm

For nearly two years now we have waited for a speech. We need a simple speech and a direct speech—most of all a political speech—about what exactly happened to our financial system, and therefore to our economy, and what we must do to make sure it can never happen again.
President George W. [...]

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