Det tyska och finska missnöjet med 'banking union'

"The gloves are finally coming off among Germany’s normally sober and scrupulously polite community of economists in a bitter battle over the future of the euro.

Serious lecturers in the higher flights of public finance and monetary economics have been trading accusations of stirring up nationalist fears in a “bar-room debate”, according to one faction, and deliberately falsifying the facts, according to their opponents.

At the heart of the confrontation is a distinguished and media-savvy professor, head of one of Germany’s most renowned economic institutes. His emotive language and stark warnings of vast European debts guaranteed by Germany have provoked angry counter-charges of populism from his fellow academics.

Hans-Werner Sinn, professor at Munich university and head of the Ifo economics research institute, was a leading signatory on a doom-laden open letter, published by the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper last week, denouncing the government’s moves towards a “banking union” in the eurozone."

Quentin Peel i FT 13 juli

Madeline Chambers, "German economists say 'no' to banking union", Chicago Tribune/Reuters
Marc Beise, "'Der Aufruf ist eine Schande'", SZ 6 juli
Daniel Gros, "An incomplete step towards banking union", voxeu 7 juli
SvD, "Finland hotar med euroexit", 6 juli
D.S., "172 German professors can't be wrong", Economist Free Exchange 6 juli
De finska Socialdemokraterna, från vilka finansministern kommer, har gjort euroskeptiska utspel för att vinna tillbaka arbetarklassväljare från Sannfinnarna och måste därför spela hardball i EU-politiken, rapporterar Michael Stothard i FT.
Michael Stothard, "Finland still affecting eurozone stance on debt", FT 12 juli
Också Tony Barber fokuserar på nationella politiska dynamiker i sin krönika.
Barber, "Catch-22: the craziness of saving the euro", FT 13 juli
Quentin Peel, "German economists slug it out over euro future", FT 13 juli
Quentin Peel, "Merkel faces revolt over Spanish bank aid", FT 15 juli
Münchau sympatiserar med det "eurovänliga" kontrauppropets mål, men inte med deras debatteknik: han hävdar att de nedbetonar för mycket vilken stor reform det faktiskt vore med banking union, som enligt Münchau innebär transferunion, även om de har rätt i att en sådan är nödvändig.
Wolfgang Münchau, "The euroskeptics have the best lines again", FT 15 juli