Pubblicato su BRAVE NEW EUROPEThe endless TARGET2 saga
Sergio Cesaratto, Eladio Febrero,
George Pantelopoulos*
TARGET2 imbalances seem to be an
endless source of controversy. At the beginning of the last decade, Hans Werner
Sinn claimed that T2 imbalances served to fund current account deficits forgetting
the responsibility of German mercantilism. Last week Eurointelligence raised
the question of presumed onerous interest payments burdening the southern
countries with TARGET2 liabilities to the advantage of northern countries. This
post shows that this is false, as TARGET2 imbalances do not entail, de facto,
intra-Eurosystem payments.
"Trans-European Automated
Real-Time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System" (TARGET2) is in
principle a payment system in which