In Europe

No Picture

74pc of Britons envy their parents’ pensions, as unemployment rises

LONDON | The future is an economic frightening sight for the younger generations in the UK. Up to 79% of Britons anticipate their income as pensioners will be too low or inflation will erode their savings. Only 26% of people believe they will be better off than their parents when they retire. A survey released Wednesday by Vision Critical shows that more than 17.2 million of British people think their personal finances…


Bandeiras

Portugal behaves

By Carlos Díaz Güell, in Madrid | Portugal has gained the confidence of the Troika (staffers from the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank), as one could infer after reading the note published at the end of their visit last week to Lisbon for the third quarterly review of the adjustment programme. The group acknowledged the progress in correcting imbalances and gave the approval for disbursement of the fourth…


image

The joke is on you, Mr Juncker

Semiotics of those now popular images go little farther beyond a simple, unsubtle fact: Spain’s finance minister Luis de Guindos is certainly not familiar with the sort of humour the Eurogroup’s chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, displayed Monday when he took Guindos’ neck between his bare hands ahead of their meeting. The prime minister of Luxembourg would next time be best advised to gently pat his Spanish colleague’s back; after all, the whole…


No Picture

Schroders: neither austerity, nor monetary expansion but a Marshall Plan

LONDON | Investment house Schroders brings in its latest ‘Economic and Strategy Viewpoint‘ the final word about austerity versus money printing. It is a conciliatory one. Well, sort of: chief economist Keith Wade and Europe economist Azad Zangana set the record seamless and believe each team is right, at least, about the other team: they all are wrong. On one hand, Wade and Zangana say they hold the “belief that…


No Picture

In Greek deal, commissioner Rehn praises investors but some feel scolded

LONDON | UPDATE | Unanimously. The International Swaps & Derivatives Association resolved Friday evening the last unknown about Greece’s restructuring debt process. The Greek government used collective action clauses to drag a small group of investors into accepting losses under the nation’s laws. The association ruled that this could be considered as a credit event that triggers payouts on credit default swaps or CDS, a market whose participants were anxious while waiting…


kzjcx

Mário Soares: Portugal and Spain must tell Mrs Merkel enough is enough

The Latin Bloc may be awakening, after all. The least it could be said about the Spanish government’s decision of bending the public deficit target bar Brussels and Berlin intend to impose, from a harsh 4.4pc to a softer 5.8pc, is that president Mariano Rajoy has enlivened with his move the not-just-austerity talk and the perhaps-Germany-is-wrong debate. In the Friday edition of the Spanish daily El País, former president and…


No Picture

Nordkapp’s Pablo Díez: “devaluation would be swift, austerity is slow and painful”

By Julia Pastor and Tania Suarez, in Madrid | Pablo Díez, at Nordkapp’s asset management department argues that implementation of austerity as the only measure to sort the crisis out will bring social chaos in Europe. Yet, Díez is unsure about how right Spain’s president  Mariano Rajoy is in rejecting the deficit target of 4.4% this year. Do you think it would have been ‘suicidal’ to commit Spain to Brussels’…


lzkjcx

UK property industry fears Chancellor will scare away super-rich buyers

LONDON | The British Property Federation issued a warning Thursday to Chancellor George Osborne ahead of possible Treasury action to close a stamp duty loophole through with foreign fortunes would be avoiding tax. The bill, according to official calculations, amounts to £1 billion, but UK’s property sector said that Osborne “must tread carefully with ‘super-rich’ stamp duty reform” and “tread lightly with any anti-avoidance intervention.” The BPF admitted there is a the…


kzjx

This is not a Madrid-Brussels fight

By Fernando González Urbaneja, in Madrid | Explaining the Spanish public deficit problem in 2012 in terms of confrontation between the government of Mariano Rajoy and Brussels is wrong and misleading. So far Brussels has not penalised members who do not meet their programmes, but has rather come to help achieve the objective, with more or less enthusiasm and more or less requirements imposed. Brussels may begin proceedings for an excessive…


No Picture

Who believes ECB’s refinancing programmes are game-changers?

LONDON | The latest edition of the liquidity expansion programme developed by the European Central Bank received Wednesday a warm welcome among several investment houses in the City. From their point of view, Long-Term Refinancing Operations or LTRO would not only help keep afloat European entities, within and out the euro zone, but prop up optimistic prospects over the global economic performance. In a report Schroders released today, chief economist…