Monetary Integration News Today

“Europe is drifting away from the technology frontier … from that viewpoint, I think Europe’s business model, looking forward, is not sustainable.” A quintessential insider discusses Europe’s competitiveness.

You’ll be pleased to know that the European Central Bank is working on the introduction of new bank notes which are “even more beautiful” than the ones already in circulation. So said Christine Lagarde, ECB president, in a New Year’s address this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of the euro.

Camila Villard Duran explains why the vision of a regional unit of account, advanced by Brazil and Argentina, is achievable.

Search Venezuelan President Says Country will Fully Transition to a Digital Economy as Certain Banks Issue USD based Debit Cards Banks in Venezuela are reportedly issuing debit cards for US dollar-denominated accounts, according to a report from Reuters which cited sources familiar with the matter. There’s now a group of Venezuelan banking institutions that have been providing debit cards to customers who maintain accounts in “hard currency” like the US dollar and other more stable curre...

During the fall of 2009, George Papandreou headed the ticket of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known by its acronym PASOK, against the then‐​governing conservative party, New Democracy, in the Greek national elections. Papandreou ran on a platform that featured highly expansive fiscal spending. During a press conference on September 13, 2009, he was asked where he would find the money to fund his party’s spending proposals. His answer was that given in the above quotation, by which...