Top Stories

Articles by The Corner

About the Author

The Corner
The Corner has a team of on-the-ground reporters in capital cities ranging from New York to Beijing. Their stories are edited by the teams at the Spanish magazine Consejeros (for members of companies’ boards of directors) and at the stock market news site Consenso Del Mercado (market consensus). They have worked in economics and communication for over 25 years.
No Picture

Markets 19th September 2011

Santander: "EU banking stress tests will consider default scenarios with haircuts in trading and maturity portfolios"

Banco Santander analysts today chose a discouraging headline for the Ecofin event hosted last week in Eastern European territory: “Little progress in the Ecofin summit in Poland. It was not possible to release the next tranche of the loan to Greece, nor there was any progress regarding the EFSF, nor was the Finnish collateral difficulties unblocked. In fact, it seems that everything will be delayed until at least October.” The…

No Picture

World economy 16th September 2011

Foreign investors buy 50mn hectares of African land in six years

By Donato Ndongo, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea | According to a paper by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, between 2004 and 2010, foreign investors have bought at least 50 million hectares in twenty African countries at ridiculously low prices: Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, Mali, Uganda, Kenya … and in the tiny Equatorial Guinea. Actively engaged in this business are…

No Picture

World economy 15th September 2011

OECD figures put EMU’s unemployment at 10%, US’s at 9%

Link analyst note | “The unemployment rate among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) remained stable in July compared to June, at 8.2%, a level maintained for the fifth consecutive month. The OECD notes that the largest increase in that month was recorded in Luxembourg (three tenths, up to 4.6%), while the largest fall was in Mexico (five tenths, down to 5.3%). Spain, where…

No Picture

World economy 15th September 2011

OECD figures put EMU's unemployment at 10%, US's at 9%

Link analyst note | “The unemployment rate among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) remained stable in July compared to June, at 8.2%, a level maintained for the fifth consecutive month. The OECD notes that the largest increase in that month was recorded in Luxembourg (three tenths, up to 4.6%), while the largest fall was in Mexico (five tenths, down to 5.3%). Spain, where…

No Picture

Markets 15th September 2011

The EC proposes to reduce to 3.5% the EFSF’s rate for Ireland and Portugal

The EC proposes to reduce to 3.5% the rate applied by the EFSF to Ireland and Portugal, now at 6.5% and 5.5% respectively, and Madrid’s financial City welcomes the idea. For Banco Santander, “The European Commission yesterday proposed reducing to 3.5% the interest rate charged by the EFSF to Ireland (currently over 6.5%) and Portugal (5.5%), and extend the debt maturities to 30 years. This proposal is the result of…

No Picture

Markets 15th September 2011

The EC proposes to reduce to 3.5% the EFSF's rate for Ireland and Portugal

The EC proposes to reduce to 3.5% the rate applied by the EFSF to Ireland and Portugal, now at 6.5% and 5.5% respectively, and Madrid’s financial City welcomes the idea. For Banco Santander, “The European Commission yesterday proposed reducing to 3.5% the interest rate charged by the EFSF to Ireland (currently over 6.5%) and Portugal (5.5%), and extend the debt maturities to 30 years. This proposal is the result of…

No Picture

Markets 12th September 2011

“Troika to return to Greece to sort out the €1.7bn gap in public finances”

Bankinter analysts, in Madrid | This week is to be decisive for Greece. The technical team of the so-called troika of creditors (the IMF, European Union and European Central Bank) will return next Wednesday to Athens to see if the Greek government can clarify the figures it failed to make clear the previous week (this is why the troika left abruptly) and on Saturday, the euro group is meeting probably to…

No Picture

Markets 12th September 2011

"Troika to return to Greece to sort out the €1.7bn gap in public finances"

Bankinter analysts, in Madrid | This week is to be decisive for Greece. The technical team of the so-called troika of creditors (the IMF, European Union and European Central Bank) will return next Wednesday to Athens to see if the Greek government can clarify the figures it failed to make clear the previous week (this is why the troika left abruptly) and on Saturday, the euro group is meeting probably to…