Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | A pointless referendum, a prime minister resigning, the opposition collapsing in a heap, the finance minister disappearing and nobody having any plan about what to do: This has all happened over the last few years in Greece. Never, though, all at the same time as has just occurred in the UK.
The ‘leave’ campaigners have shown their inability to run the Brexit. They felt unspirited to undertake the awesome task of taking Britain out of the European Union, let alone lead the country in these difficult circumstances. One after another they either refused to challenge premiership or were brushed away by poor support among Conservative MPs. It stands as no surprise Ms May has snatched an easy victory.
F. Barciela / Fran G. Ljubetic | No to reforms. Despite having an unemployment rate of 10%, the French people feel very comfortable in their heavily subsidised State. France continues to atonish most of the world and Europe as its citizens staunchly reject any kind of reform to update working rights and conditions which, where they exist, are hard.
Why do problems emanate in the South, even if you discount Greece (Deep South)? For the purposes of this post, South comprises France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, respectively the second, third and fourth largest Eurozone economies. North considers Germany (the largest EZ economy), Belgium, Netherlands and Austria.
Until early this year it seemed unlikely that an extreme idea lingering for two decades on the political fringe could turn into a mainstream choice preferred by majority of British voters as happened on June 23. Ukip’s leader Nigel Farage declared victory: he has for decades championed leaving the European Union but that was only half of his political double bill.
Investors’ fears and their hunt for safe haven assets are having an unsuspected impact on European public debt yields: nearly two thirds of these securities are in negative territory; the German bund is beating a new record low on a daily basis and Spanish debt is approaching the minimum levels recorded in April 2015.
via Macropolis | “So, you are here?” said the check-in attendant at Berlin’s Tegel Airport. The man, who appeared to have a Somali background, had a charming smile. His comment was in reference to my British passport and the fact the UK was holding its Leave/Remain referendum on the same day.
Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has begun an investigation into Volkswagen(108,2€; – 2.9%), BMW (65,2€; – 2.4%), Daimler (52,3€; – 3.6%), Bosch (unlisted components supplier) and ZF (unlisted components supplier) for possible collusion in the purchasing of steel. The FCO could impose fines amounting to a maximum 10% of the companies’ revenues.
The British community in Spain is the largest in the EU: there are 297,000 Britons resident in Spain, according to January data from the National Statistics Institute. After the political earthquake created by Brexit, a large part of this community is now seeking dual nationality from the Spanish government to protect their rights as European citizens. For this to happen, there will have to be a change in the Spanish law.
After Standard Life announced on Monday that it had suspended withdrawals from its UK Real Estate Fund (2.9 billion GBP in assets), yesterday the whole sector (property funds), with assets under management of approximately 9 billion GBP, decided to follow suit. The two funds which stand out by size are: M&G Property Portfolio (4.4 billion GBP, the biggest) and Aviva (1.8 billion GBP).