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Articles by Lidia Conde

About the Author

Lidia Conde
She studied journalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Since 1991, Lidia lives and works in Germany as a correspondent for several Spanish newspapers, in which she has covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German reunification. Seeking an answer to how Europe could become competitive and fair, too.
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In Europe 4th January 2015

Germany: Topsy-turvy world (II)

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | Is Germany living in a crazy world? That’s what many journalists hint at. “The tortoise cycle will continue,” says Johannes Müller, responsible for the management of Deutsche Bank’s large estates. “The interest rates will remain rock-bottom at least until 2016.” This represents an opportunity for the stock exchanges, because the fear of risk is decreasing. “The ECB wants to weaken the Euro with its low interest rates policy, which is also an opportunity to invest in Dollars and real estate.”

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In Europe 3rd January 2015

Germany: Topsy-turvy world (I)

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | The headlines on the German media would suggest that we live in a crazy world or on the edge looking into the abyss. The fear of a potential catastrophe due to the anti-crisis policy by Mario Draghi and Janet Yellen has led to many different theories and proposals.

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In Europe 9th October 2014

Germany’s dilemma: Between Europe and the AfD’s europhobia

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | It is time to grow! Well, that’s everybody’s motto. However nobody agrees on how. That’s why the European Central Bank is moving ahead with its bond-buying program. After all, if the ECB steps away from its inflation target, the structural unemployment rate would increase and the potential economy growth would be reduced. 

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In Europe 12th September 2014

“Spain would be one of the top destinations of a European investment agenda”

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | Martin Gornig is deputy head of department of Firms and Markets at the prestigious German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin. The Institute conducts a working group that advises the Minister of Economy Sigmar Gabriel with the idea of increasing investments in Germany. Gornig and his team released a report last summer on the possibility of stimulating growth in Europe without changing the Stability Pact. The proposal of  DIW is to immediately mobilize the necessary investments “to boost growth in countries in crisis and avoid a new recession in the eurozone.” As France and Italy are demanding, the Institute bets on growth but warns that it should not be at the expense of a debt increase

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In Europe 5th September 2014

Draghi does the dirty job while Germany attacks

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | What a relief! France is reinventing itself as it is Angela Merkel’s hope. However much Mr Draghi warns that the ECB will do whatever it takes to save the euro, all the fresh money in the bank will be useless unless “some members of the Eurozone” change their economic policy. This is Germany’s analysis of the Eurozone state.

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In Europe 19th July 2014

Germany: Austerity actually works

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | Is austerity at all costs killing us? Germany answers with a resounding “no.” Even though the North-South axis in the European policy is more present than ever, for Berlin “austerity does not punish.” On the contrary: it even purifies. Furthermore, the Stability Pact offers enough flexibility so as to boost growth. There is no room for revision or debate.

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In Europe 12th May 2014

Time for ‘Draghilogists’

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | Experts don’t agree about what can happen in the short and medium term in the Eurozone. The main critical voice is the president of Munich’s Ifo Institut, Hans-Werner Sinn, who believes that Europe is in a “resting phase” before the storm hits again. According to Germany, now is the time of the “Draghilogists”, i.e. those analysts who try to elucidate the ECB’s next step.

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Interviews 16th April 2014

“Spain will repeat its success as tourist destination in 2014”

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | Co-manager at Europe’s leading travel group TUI Oliver Dörschuck considers that “Spain is by far the most important tourist destination for TUI and its clients.” However, for him what matters most today is not the destination, but the hotel, which has to bring the best experience to the client.

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In Europe 17th February 2014

Germany: Europe does not converge

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | German people continue feeling they have to suffer the consequences of Greeces’s mistakes when figures say that Greek are twice as rich as they are as regards housing ownership. They want to help their southern neighbours with something else than money: economy and finance know-how to ease them of the severe adjustments derived from crisis. 

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In Europe 14th January 2014

Paid Corruption In Germany: The Pofalla Case

FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | What happens when the supervisory board in a company discovers that its president conceals his intentions of improving the relationship with the political power by hiring Angela Merkel’s “man of confidence”? That’s what has happened in Deutsche Bahn, the German railway, whose supervisory board learned from the press that Ronald Pofalla (Merkel’s cabinet chief barely two weeks before) was joining the governing board.