Perhaps one of the most important virtues France has is the real cause of its malaise: the public services work very well, but they are tremendously expensive and financing them is eating into the rest of the country. Taxes represent 56% of GDP, even higher than in Sweden.
Emmanuel Gomez Farias Mata and Ivan Farias Pelcastre | Donald Trump’s populist approach led political commentators on both sides of the Atlantic to argue that the US had abandoned its position at the forefront of global politics. Those same commentators quickly turned their heads to Germany as the country that can — and seems willing to — lead the industrialized, liberal democracies into the 21st century, and pronounced German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the new “leader of the free world.”
Despite the success of the Brexit vote last June, the indicators show that 2016 has not only not been a bad year, but has been one of the best in terms of bilateral Spanish-UK economic relations. Spanish exports reached record highs, despite the pound’s depreciation. And Spanish companies are committed to maintaining investments in the UK.
Nick Ottens via Atlantic Sentinel |UK election result confirms that the political divide in the country has shifted from the traditional left versus right to what I call “blue” versus “red”.
J.L.M. Campuzano | On Thursday, the ECB confirmed what many analysts were expecting: the limit on expansive monetary measures has now probably been reached, without this meaning there will be an immediate reversal. And the reason for this? Simply that the risks are more balanced now.
Theresa May will remain Prime Minister with 313 seats but far from the 326 needed to have majority and negotiate a hard Brexit. However, they could probably count on the support of eight unionists from Northern Ireland. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour win 261 seats, which means 29 up agaisnt last elections, but with no possibilities to form a government.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | The back-and-forth between Greece and its lenders is likely to continue right up to the start of the Eurogroup meeting on June 15, as all sides try to come to the type of accommodation that eluded them on May 22.
For a few hours on June 7, Banco Popular had three owners: the previous shareholders, the FROB and Banco Santander; a quick trip, with a stop in between for a bit of a respite, before changing its skin. The Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), in other words the ECB, decided on Tuesday that Popular was inviable and immediately started the liquidation process which begins with a bail-in.
Time has come to reassess the ECB’s strategy. The Central Bank can no longer overlook the economy’s marked improvement. Nor can it ignore the fact that the money market price is at lower levels than warranted by the current environment. It should act swiftly.
When Ms. May called for General UK Elections, she was fully confident of a landslide victory. Jeremy Corbyn seemed no match for her. But successive blunders and a rather clumsy campaign have led to an unforeseen revival on the part of the Labour party. But the best result for the UK and Europe would be either a landslide victory for Ms. May or an unexpected Labour win.