Merkel is negotiating a coalition government with the Greens and the Liberals – who propose opening the country up to the 4.0 world and creating a digitalisation ministry. Meanwhile, the chancellor warns that the idea of the homeland cannot be left to the increasing number of xenophobics in the country.
John Bruton | The current political system in the United Kingdom, and the anxieties and obsessions it has generated, determine the British position on Brexit. This expresses itself in an artificially inflexible and brittle interpretation of the 2016 referendum result. Scope and time are needed for creative thinking.
J.L.M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | An interesting study from the ECB about the structure of the financial sector in Europe shows the increasing weighting in the non-banking financial sector’s assets and the consolidation carried out by the lenders.
Jens Bastian via Macropolis | China is rather a newcomer to the region of southeast Europe. Compared to other countries and multilateral institutions – such as Russia, the European Commission or the EBRD – China is starting almost 30 years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall to establish a footprint in the region
Nick Ottens via Atlantic Sentinel | When Greece resisted demands for spending cuts from its creditors last year, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appealed to the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, for talks with the other 27 heads of government. Theresa May clearly hasn’t learned Tsipras’ lesson.
James Alexander | Not quite the line you will see across most of the market or amongst so-called monetarist economists. In fact, implied by actual nominal growth and expectations for nominal growth monetary policy is too tight. Nominal GDP growth is running at 3.7% YoY and falling, while the best measure of inflation around, the implied GDP deflator is running just below 2%.
Jean Bastian via Macropolis | China’s emerging footprint in neighboring countries such as Serbia, FYR Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina: all three countries are land-locked states which offer a different set of opportunities and challenges for the extension of China’s Balkan Silk Road.
The European Financial industry is clearly suffering when trying to meet the constraints imposed by the new transparency European regulation a few weeks before the gong (January 2018).
Jens Bastian via Macropolis | The “Balkan Silk Road” is the name given to the transport route and logistics corridor China has begun to establish in the Balkan region even before the official launch of the BRI two years ago. The Balkans, and by extension Southeast Europe, is a region where China can empirically test various elements of the BRI. The “gate towards Europe”, as the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang termed Greece during a visit in 2014, initiates the Southeast European corridor of the Silk Road.
Francesco Saraceno | Angela Merkel will be Chancellor for the fourth time, marking a long period of political and policy stability. In the past fifteen years Germany emerged as the model to follow for the other large economies. For since its economy has performed better, in terms of growth and unemployment, than France or Italy.