LONDON | Via Presseurop | ‘The EU’s controversial “Tobin Tax” on financial transactions has been dealt a severe blow after the EU Council’s legal service judged the proposal “infringes” EU treaties and is “discriminatory” to states which do not take part, reports the Financial Times.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | The author believes that two ‘obsessions’ are at the root of the loss in nominal stability that took place in the Bernanke Fed: the ‘obsession’ with inflation and its counterpart, the ‘obsession’ with interest rates.
By Antonio Sánchez-Gijón, via capitalmadrid | In little more than fifty years, Egypt has gone from being the country with almost absolute power to regulate the use of the Nile, to be forced to negotiate with all countries upstream.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Unlike Spain, where the external sector is supporting the economy, Italian exports fell by 1.9% in 1Q13, its worst register from 1Q09. The country’s GDP dropped by 0.6%, and April’s industrial production by 0.3%.
BEIJING | Caixin Magazine | A ripple of skepticism recently hit prices of the yellow metal, but gold remains the ultimate hedge on inflation, as former Morgan Stanley’s Chief Economist for Asia Pacific Andy Xie explains. The global economy has already entered into stagflation with a growth rate of 2 percent and inflation at 3 percent. The inflation rate is likely to rise above 4 percent in 18 months while the growth rate will remain stuck in the same range. With inflation twice as high as the growth rate, the global economy will slip deeper into stagflation.
MADRID | By Antonio Sánchez-Gijón (Capital Madrid) | What is on stake for the new Italian government? The country is living in a contradiction: on one hand it has debt and risk premium under control, but on the other it is struggling with a deep economic crisis. Moody’s has corrected its 2013 GDP forecast set so far at -1%, and has placed it at -1.8%.
MADRID | The 6.2 million of unemployed is brutal, anomalous, and lacks explanatory references among countries with quite similar structures.
Risk agency Moody’s analysts said in an interview that the probabilities of Spain asking for a rescue are less pressing than previously thought.
MADRID | By Carlos Díaz Güell | In the coming weeks we’ll see if the banking career of Alfredo Sáenz, probably Spain’s best bank manager during democracy, with Emilio Botín’s permission, is finished or not.
By Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, analyst at XTB | For all the noise these scandals bring about, the pressure on Merkel should not abate. The eurozone needs that Germany relaxes its stand on public investment cuts, and efficient measures to deal with sovereign debt should be agreed by core country members.