The current economic and financial situation reflects, in significant part, the unwinding of two of these longer-term developments – the housing boom and the credit boom – and the continuation of the pressure of global demand on commodity prices. The housing boom came to an end because rising prices made housing increasingly unaffordable.
In particular, I would like to present what I see as the rationale for a banking union and sketch some first ideas about a fiscal union in the euro area in the medium term. My focus is the euro area, which in my opinion is the core of future integration.