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ECB

Signal to the EC regarding the restriction of cash payments

| Full text of the opinion | Dear readers, as you know from the EQUIP, we are strictly monitoring and opposing the attempts of the Ministry of Finance to push through yet another restriction on cash payments by reducing the allowable limit for such transactions to a maximum of 5,000 leva - a proposal that is part of a draft law...

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Interview: Pin your hopes on radical decentralization

Interview with Hans-Hermann Hoppe for the Polish weekly Najwyższy Czas! What is your assessment of contemporary Western Europe and the EU in particular? All political parties in Western Europe, regardless of their different names and programs, gravitate around the fundamental idea of democratic socialism. They use elections to legitimize the taxation of the productive parts of …

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How the ECB's monetary policy pushed Italian banks to the brink of bankruptcy

As it became clear last week, the banking sector in Italy is in a serious financial crisis and many of the country's largest banks are facing bankruptcy, which is why they need an urgent injection of capital. In the midst of the dispute between Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and statesmen in Berlin and Brussels ...

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ECB at war with cash

The ECB’s Governing Council has decided to abolish the 500-euro note, it was announced on February 15. It is the second most widely used denomination after the 50-euro note. It also accounts for 30% of the value of physical euro banknotes in circulation. Why is this move important and what are the effects? …

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What will the ECB's monetary socialism lead to?

On March 9, the European Central Bank (ECB) launched its expanded asset purchase program, which was officially announced at the end of January at the central bank’s first board meeting of the year. With the expansion of the program’s scope and volume, the ECB will aim to buy 44 …

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The dreaded deflation

In early January, Eurostat data was released showing the first annual deflationary episode in the Eurozone since 2009 – the overall price level fell by 0.2% between December 2013 and the same month in 2014. This sent the European Central Bank and a large number of Keynesian economists into a panic. From …

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Whose interests does the ECB protect?

"The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank responsible for the single European currency, the euro. The ECB's main task is to maintain the purchasing power of the euro and, consequently, price stability in the euro area. The European Central Bank is committed to performing efficiently all central banking tasks entrusted to it, and in doing so …

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What will the ECB's new monetary measures lead to?

The short answer to the question in the title is “nothing,” or at least none of the goals that European central bankers state to the public. But before that, let’s take a look at the details of the decisions. At its last meeting on September 4, 2014, the board of the European Central Bank (ECB) took several measures that …

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The Ogre of Deflation*

Having barely emerged from recession, the European economy is showing negligible growth and, by all accounts, is on the verge of entering a deflationary spiral. A situation similar to that in Japan, which lost two decades of no economic progress. It is time for tough measures from the ECB, warn world-renowned financial analysts and …

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