A proposito di Eurobonds

In this article, I first note that most eurobond proposals basically aim to cut debt service costs and favor the reduction of outstanding public debt stocks. While this perspective is consistent with the well-known “debt intolerance” theory and the idea that tough austerity is required to restore macroeconomic solidity, it totally neglects the Keynesian-type uncertainty that currently seems to affect the eurozone economy. In such a context, I argue expansionary fiscal policies instead of fiscal austerity are needed to end the crisis. Accordingly, eurobonds should be conceived as financing instruments of anti-cyclical fiscal policies carried out, hopefully, by a eurozone federal government. I also stress that the in-deep roots of the existing difficulties lie in the incompleteness and fragility of the eurozone institutional building with respect to monetarily sovereign countries, rather than in “bad” fundamentals in peripheral economies. Therefore, a decisive step out of the crisis would entail the reconciliation of monetary and fiscal policy through the creation of a definitive eurozone federal entity.