The existing balances on the current accounts of the major industrialised countries have given rise to demands, addressed particularly to German economic policy-makers, which amount to a revitalisation of the "locomotive theory". However, were the world economy once more to be "reflated" in...

Low growth and high unemployment have induced the European Union (EU) to outline an economic programme in which long-term effective growth and structural policy measures play a central role. Simultaneously, the German government adopted an "action programme aiming at more growth and employment",...

Unconventional forms of international trade (such as counterpurchase, compensation deals and barter) have assumed rapidly growing importance, especially in many developing countries, as a consequence of the fall in commodity prices and the worsening of international debt problems since the oil...