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Peter Bofinger


Peter Bofinger is professor of economics at Würzburg University and a former member of the German Council of Economic Experts.

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger is professor of economics at Würzburg University and a former member of the German Council of Economic Experts.

Germany Ditches Debt Brake—A Fiscal Revolution Begins

Peter Bofinger 21st March 2025

Germany scraps its debt brake, unleashing a 500-billion-euro investment plan that could transform infrastructure, defence, and economic growth.

Capital-markets union: a panacea for Europe?

Peter Bofinger 2nd September 2024

Financial integration is not the problem, writes Peter Bofinger. It is the still national segmentation of government bonds.

Time for supply-side policy: Thatcher versus Schumpeter

Peter Bofinger 20th May 2024

Peter Bofinger explains what lies behind the conflict within Germany’s Ampelkoalition on economic policy.

ECB: now is the time for normalisation

Peter Bofinger 18th March 2024

Europe needs massive investment, Peter Bofinger writes. Yet the ECB’s restrictive monetary stance means it is set to fall this year.

Germany: the ‘sick man’ of Europe—but ‘dumb’ as well?

Peter Bofinger 8th January 2024

The austerity package stemming from an adverse Constitutional Court ruling, Peter Bofinger writes, defies logic.

Germany’s true economic disease

Peter Bofinger 9th October 2023

Germany is indeed ‘sick’, Peter Bofinger writes—but not for the reason most commentators think.

ECB president Lagarde: has she become unstoppable?

Peter Bofinger 19th June 2023

Asserting the need for further interest rate rises, Peter Bofinger writes, is not the same as evidencing them.

The failure of Credit Suisse—not just a one-off

Peter Bofinger 10th April 2023

The bank was mismanaged but its collapse, Peter Bofinger writes, reveals a system of regulation with as many holes as a Swiss cheese.

The role of public debt in the ‘new normal’

Peter Bofinger 13th February 2023

A Schumpeterian perspective provides new insights for fiscal policy in Europe, Peter Bofinger writes.

The digital euro: a flawed concept doomed to flop

Peter Bofinger 19th December 2022

Peter Bofinger argues that on the ‘digital euro’ the European Central Bank has dug itself into a hole it would do best to vacate.

A noble award for a ‘popular misconception’

Peter Bofinger 17th October 2022

Peter Bofinger questions last week’s award of a prestigious economics prize to an orthodox school which could not anticipate the 2008 crash.

Inflation: saving households from insolvency

Peter Bofinger 11th July 2022

Peter Bofinger argues that state guarantees of loans to households could cushion the price shock at negligible cost.

Return to positive interest rates requires a safety net

Peter Bofinger 9th May 2022

Peter Bofinger explains how inflation in the eurozone can be tempered without jeopardising recovery.

Taking the heat out of energy prices

Peter Bofinger 7th March 2022

Instead of higher interest rates, Peter Bofinger urges lower VAT on energy and temporary suspension of the CO2 trading system.  

The ECB needs a better narrative

Peter Bofinger 20th December 2021

Giving the public impression that inflation is ‘too low’, Peter Bofinger writes, is not a good look for the bank.

Germany’s traffic-light coalition: green light or stuck on amber?

Peter Bofinger 25th October 2021

Peter Bofinger recognises the compromises necessary for a three-party government but regrets the lack of vision to face a decade of huge challenges.

ECB strategy review: the mountain has given birth to a mouse

Peter Bofinger 26th July 2021

Peter Bofinger argues that the ECB strategy review represents a missed opportunity.

It’s time to rewrite the macro­economic rulebook for the euro area

Peter Bofinger 31st May 2021

Peter Bofinger contends that the economic impact of the pandemic has rendered obsolete the old eurozone fiscal rules.

How to stimulate the economy after the lockdown

Peter Bofinger 5th April 2021

A ‘helicopter money’ stimulus of direct payments to individuals, as in the US, would be neither well targeted nor transformatory in Europe.

Bitcoin lacks a unique selling proposition

Peter Bofinger 8th February 2021

Peter Bofinger identifies the cryptocurrency’s Achilles heel.

Easing the EU fiscal straitjacket

Peter Bofinger 14th December 2020

Without major reform of the EU fiscal framework, Peter Bofinger argues, public investment will be insufficient in the wake of the pandemic.

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