However, tax rate increases of sufficient dimension to deal with our looming fiscal problems arguably pose significant risks to economic growth and the revenue base. The exact magnitude of such risks is very difficult to estimate, but they are of enough concern, in my judgment, to warrant aiming to close the fiscal gap primarily, if not wholly, from the outlay side.
For banks outside it is currently around 1, while for euro area banks it is only 0.7 – in other words, euro area banks are priced by the market at less than their book value. An important reason for this is that countries outside the euro area have made much faster progress in acknowledging losses and resolving banks that were not viable.