Emmanuel Macron’s ambitious plans to reform eurozone institutions received a further setback when German chancellor Angela Merkel toed her party’s line and rejected some of his bolder proposals when the two met in Berlin last week. Merkel’s stance makes it unlikely that any meaningful structural reform of eurozone institutions will be agreed upon at the […]
China’s economy is slowing down. What does that mean for Germany?
Almost 70 years of peace on the European continent between European great powers and the role of the European Union is still on the table. But isn’t it the most obvious argument in defense of the European experiment? In this current economic and financial climax covered with layers of elections and referendum, the European […]
Considering the unpredictability of fear-driven markets the eurozone is not yet out of the woods. Neverthless, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to say that Europe has ridden out the worst of the storm. The piecemeal rescue process has not been pretty, but the sum of measures taken – the incremental build up of a firewall, the six pack, […]
Yet another euro crisis summit is over, and yet another deal has been struck. This time, the deal has taken the shape of an intergovernmental agreement. If I am not mistaken, and I may very well have lost count by now, that makes nine summits and five deals in the past 19 months. Although it […]
Wednesday, November 23, 2011, Germany sold 10-year Bunds at its debt auction worth 3.64 billion euro with an average yield of 1.98%, and the bid-to-cover ratio was 1.1 , while the Bundesbank retained the remainder of the 6 billion euro offering. To most people, that’s just Wall Street gobbledegook, but in fact, it is a […]
This year has been all about Greece. The troika, meaning the IMF, ECB, and Commission, have been working on containing the Greek crisis and limiting the contagion to the rest of the Union and ultimately to the global markets. The outcomes of the meeting over the weekend are a new bail-out plan and more ‘haircuts.’ […]
The European model of social welfare has long been accused of being unsustainable. The related but often ignored phenomena of low birth rates and aging populations have led analysts to wonder how an ever smaller proportion of workers could continue to pay for an increasing population of elderly dependents. With Europe in the throes of […]
What makes a currency unique? The symbols, monuments, leaders figuring on the paper money, are exemplifications of the collective identity and shared culture. In the case of the Euro, as underlined by Gideon Rachman, the symbols on Euro’s coins and bills are fictitious. Last week, I ask one of my close friends, Dr. Maria Lorca-Susino, […]
What does the Euro crisis mean for Europe? Will the Euro crisis lead to the end of Europe as we know it? Is Europe on the edge of being reduced to a simple historical moment only existing in history books? These questions were fostered during an excellent conversation on NPR led by Tom Ashbrook with […]
A lot has been said by the major Western news sources (WSJ, Bloomberg, FT, NY Times) about China’s reaction to the downgrade of the U.S. creditworthiness. Although there has been no official comment from Beijing since the downgrade, the Xinhua news agency (the official mouth-piece and the usual government ‘attack dog’ for criticizing the U.S.) […]
Last year we saw developments in the EU-China trade relationship that can signify a greater convergence between these two trading partners. The global financial crisis that led to temporary drop in western demand for Chinese goods during 2009 was followed by an aggressive investment strategy by China in 2010, acquiring a number of businesses in […]
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