Europe

In Europe 4th June 2012

Rajoy’s proposal of fiscal integration should be the aim of all Europe

By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Most financial commentators have focused its attention on the comments that the Spanish president Mariano Rajoy made last Saturday. He emphasized the importance of creating a European body whose main objective would be to control of the finances of the different States, i.e. a fiscal integration. According to macroeconomic experts at Morgan Stanley, such measures of fiscal integration should be the aim of Europe…

Markets 1st June 2012

Friday’s graph: downturn in US air traffic higher than in Europe

The International Air Transport Association published this week April data, which confirmed that there has been a certain slowdown on the overall still growth picture. From January to April, world air traffic was up by an accumulated 7.1 percent versus 7.4 percent in January to March. Emerging markets like Latin America, Middle East and Africa registered double-digit growth, while the down trend was worse in the US than in Europe.

World economy 28th May 2012

The underwater America

NEW YORK | One of the current most visited exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is not dedicated to pop-art nor surrealistic sculpture but to mortgages. Foreclosed calls the home ownership American dream into question and shows how the suburban development has been not only environmentally aggressive in some states but financially unsound. “Many of the low-income people who bought at the height of the bubble…

World economy 16th May 2012

California Gov turns to European austerity

NEW YORK | “Cutting alone really doesn’t do it, and that’s why I’m linking the serious budget reductions — real increase to austerity — with a plea to the voters: please increase taxes temporarily on the most affluent and everyone else with a quarter of a cent sales tax,” California governor Jerry Brown said in releasing his $91 billion general fund budget plan this week. These are not easy days for…

In Europe 15th May 2012

Euro area’s industrial production fell 0.3pc in March after February’s 0.8pc rise

In March 2012 compared with February 2012, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU. In February production rose by 0.8% and 0.4% respectively. In March 2012 compared with March 2011, industrial production dropped by 2.2% in the euro area and by 1.9% in the EU. These estimates were released this week by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In March 2012 compared with…

Markets 14th May 2012

JP Morgan says European equities’ in recovery mode

LONDON | US equities’ outperformance is becoming exhausted and investors should look through the euro smoke for opportunities, JP Morgan advised clients in its latest weekly strategy report. In spite of agreeing in line with consensus, analysts’ recommendation was to open ears to what the arguments might be in support of European equities. Is it time to go overweight Europe?, the investment entity asked in its paper. Although every investor’s favourite regional equity bet…

World economy 30th April 2012

Jeffrey Sachs defends European model

NEW YORK | The debate between austerity or growth to cure Europes illness is in full swing. Austerians are, though, losing support. A consensus is growing that current cuts alone aren’t likely to tackle the euro zone crisis. For US celebrity economist and director of the Earth Institute Jeffrey Sachs, “Fiscal policy alone won’t save Europe,” he said in the launch of the Center on Global Economic Governance at Columbia…

Interviews 16th April 2012

“The last real estate bubble still to burst in Europe is France’s”

MADRID | In an interview with the Spanish business daily El Economista, head of the Absolute Return department at Edmond de Rothschild Benjamin Melman said the Spanish government’s austerity plan is credible, but the markets doubt that it will help the economy grow. Unlike most market participants, Melman explained why he is more worried about France than about Spain or Italy. After the sovereign risk rally that we saw last week, would…

World economy 4th April 2012

What do GDP rates matter without happiness?

MADRID | A calm breeze in the midst of so much economic shock and just-about-fine Spanish bond auctions, whose effects will probably still ripple beyond Easter with the usual euro contagion talk. Let us pause for a moment and read a list of the happiest and satisfied peoples in the world. It is a huge report, a pile of 158 pages full of charts, notes in fine print and details on…

World economy 2nd April 2012

Euro zone unemployment 2.5% higher than in the US

LONDON | Jobless rates gave Monday a nasty reminder of an ongoing credit crisis whose effects seem to have depressed further the economies in the developed countries. The euro area (EA17) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.8% in February 2012, compared with 10.7% a month earlier. It was 10.0% in February 2011. The EU27 unemployment rate was 10.2% in February 2012, compared with 10.1% in January. It was 9.5% in February 2011. The statistical…

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