LONDON | You needn't be a bureaucrat in the payroll of any of the myriad of euro institutions to launch a campaign that points at the various strengths the common currency area still possesses. Day after day, whether it's new developments in politics or foreign direct investment balances, some piece of data brings up the surprising resilience that wows non-euro observers. Amid the sorry situation of the euro estate, JP…
text your ex back MADRID | For the first time since the crisis unfolded, Germany is starting to cast serious doubts on the euro zone sustainability. Acting as paymaster general involves such a woeful toll as to think twice before continuing to foot a growing bill likely to snowball out of control. It is under the uneasy impression that money spent on saving others is simply burned off. The temporary…
MADRID | Following German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s instructions, those supposedly at command in Euroland zealously repeat that growth and austerity are not in contradiction. Beware about such a slim talk. Their underlying message is that fiscal compact must be preserved at all costs, growth delivery amounting to a merely cosmetic make-up. Eurocrats are working out ways to sell through financial engineering the same money under a more “à la mode” disguise….
LONDON | The majority of asset managers working on the European markets agree that there are opportunities to invest despite fragility of the single currency. The UK’s Association of Investment Companies (AIC) published this week the results after having polled Europe managers to gauge opinion on what may be in store for the region. Whilst managers expect pain in the short-term, and do not see miracles happening overnight, over the longer-term they…
MADRID | Although nine candidates attempted on Sunday to pass through to the second round of the French presidential elections, only two mattered in the dispute for the trophy: Nicolas Sarkozy, current president of the republic, and the socialist Francois Hollande. Two days after the first round of elections, the polls are very clear and give a significant advantage to Hollande, with an intention to vote of 54% against 45% for Sarkozy….
LONDON | This year may prove an inflection point, with growth in equity markets in Europe and European smaller companies on attractive valuations leading the way. Fund Manager of TR European Growth Trust PLC Ollie Beckett believes expectations for positive returns from EU equity markets in 2012 have solid ground, notwithstanding the depressive tunnel the euro zone’s economy is currently passing through. But then again, Ollie Beckett is an associate director…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Ireland has began to get out of the pit of its crisis and the usual suspects have wasted no time in coming back to tell Spain that it can be done, austerity only is the key. Ireland has gone through a fair amount of pain just to get its head above the water line. A bad bank with the wrong estimations and a bailout…