What happened when Poland’s Fixed Exchange Rate Experiment Failed: Lessons for a Euro Divorce

In a recent paper, Arnab Das and Nouriel Roubini  compare exit from the euro area to a divorce. (See long form here, short form here.) When we hear that friends are heading for the divorce court, two questions immediately come to mind. Why did this arrangement, which seemed like a good idea at the time, go bad? What is the best way out? In answering these questions for countries now facing the prospect of forced or voluntary exit from the euro, it is helpful to look for lessons from other fixed-rate arrangements that have gone bad. Poland’s experience in the 1990s provides one such example. Read more>>>