Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis| Given the concern within the eurozone that the next crisis is just around the corner and that not enough has been done to prevent it, there is a new urgency to learn from our recent past. The precariousness of the Italian situation, and other threats to the single currency, are the best motivation possible to assess what went right or wrong in previous year.
The first figures on the purchase by consumers on Black Friday and the last weekend show significant strength in private consumption. The data published by the firm Customer Growth Customers should be highlighted, which shows that between Thursday and Sunday some 60 billion dollars of products were sold in the US through different sales channels, which represents a 6% increase over the same period last year.
With the economic slowdown and equity market correction in China, hidden domestic debt has come to the attention of global markets again. The vast majority of that debt is in wholly owned shell companies, called Local Government Financing Vehicles (LGFV). Analysts at Julius Baer estimate that only around half of them are businesses with real, sustainable cash flow.
The European Commission authorise the merger in Holland between Tele2 and Deutsche Telekom without preconditions , which drove the European teleco sector yesterday. Until now the Commission had shown itself radically opposed to allowing corporate operations which imply a reduction from four to three in the number of operators in a country.
The ECB will not start the normalization of its monetary policy in 2019. This is the bet of Philippe Waechter, chief economist at Ostrum AM (affiliated to Natixis AM). He also thinks that the interest rate level will remain stable, that the refi rate and the deposit rate will remain at the current level in 2019.
From today until Thursday the President of China, Xi Jinping, is on an official visit to Spain. It is the first visit to Spain by a President of China for 13 years. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both countries will seek to advance the bilateral relationship in multiple areas, from bilateral political relations, geopolitics, economics and the educational-linguistic area to science, among others.
Theresa Crysmann | In the world’s second biggest lobbying capital after Washington DC, around 30,000 lobbyists also work outside of office hours to advance the interests of their mostly corporate employers. Conservative estimates put the annual value of the city’s lobby machine at €1.5 billion.
University of Surrey) via The Conversation | With the centenary of the end of World War I in November, there have been plenty of sombre occasions for European leaders of late. But perhaps none have been quite as sombre as the brief meeting to sign the withdrawal agreement detailing the UK’s departure from the European Union.
It’s a simple question: Will we be able to feed everyone if the population of the planet rises from about 7 billion people today to 9-10 billion in 2050? Several experts at Citi have tried to anwer this question, starting from mentioning Thomas Malthus’ Essay on the Principles of Population, and concluding that food industry in its current format is unsustainable for future demand.
William Chislett | Spain has moved from a labour market characterised during the Franco regime by heavy state intervention, no free trade unions, the prohibition of strikes and lock-outs, a low female participation rate and paternalistic legislation to one that is flexible, but marked by consistently high unemployment.