Economics of Target Balances

Hans-Werner Sinn is President emeritus at the ifo Institute for Economic Research and Professor emeritus at the University of Munich. He founded and directed  the international CESifo research network and the Center for Economic Studies. He has received four honorary doctoral degrees,  has delivered numerous distinguished academic lectures, has taught in a number of countries, and was both President of the International Institute of Public Finance (the world organization of Public Sector economists) and the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik). In recent years, his work has focused primarily on the euro, the financial crisis, the European Central Bank, green energy, demography, migration, and Brexit. He previously conducted extensive research into German reunification, taxation, systems competition, and insurance.

• Chapter 1: Target: An obscure aspect of the Eurosystem.- Chapter 2: The Target credit.- Chapter 3: Current account, capital movements and Target balances.- Chapter 4: The cash balance.- Chapter 5: How the Target balances came about: the first phase of the crisis.- Chapter 6: The case of Greece.- Chapter 7: External crowds out internal money.- Chapter 8: The QE program and the Target balances.- Chapter 9: The rate of interest on Target balances.- Chapter 10: Interest spreads and tiering.- Chapter 11: The Corona Crisis.- Chapter 12: The risks of Target and cash balances.- Chapter 13: Conclusions and policy recommendations.