Today’s market chatter in Spain
MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | Market makers woke up with a torrent of data explaining how first quarter played out: Spanish public deficit, Eurozone’s activity indicators, and many more.
Germany
SPECIAL REPORT: Are minijobs a solution for Europe?
BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | Europeans never stop listening to ideas for economic reforms. One potentially successful option, with support from Europe’s leading institutions for smaller economies, is the ¨minijob¨.
But are these atypical jobs the solution to move Spain’s 26 percent unemployment rate closer to Germany’s 5 percent?
Germany feels sure about European rescue fund- not ECB’s OMT
MADRID | By Julia Pastor| German judges are removing uncertainties little by little. The country’s Constitutional Court confirmed on Tuesday that the European Mechanism of Stability is legal and does not damage the Bundestag’s budget. Furthermore, they also approved euro zone’s fiscal pact. The court had brought an appeal against constitutionality of both treaties in June of 2012. The third appeal regarding ECB’s bond purchase program is still pending of a sentence, however, and apparently it would be more difficult to solve: Karlsruhe’s court has required European Court of Justice to decide against the program following the arguments -more economic than legal- that Bundesbank has handed to them.
Europe’s searching of an impossible balance
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Expressions such as “two-speed Europe”, or “the gap between core and peripheral European countries” have been hitting the headlines for ages. The reality is that state members have never grown at the same pace and they are not likely to ever do so. Expectations about the end of crisis suggest that not all of them will exit at the same time; imbalances will continue one way or another. British economy could reach 2008 pre-recession growth peak next summer, while EU members like Italy, Croatia or Slovenia may see imbalances increase. Germany’s eagerness for saving and also investing out of Europe could postpone the problem.
Spain is no longer Europe’s sick man; it’s Italy’s turn
MADRID | By Francisco López | Investment banks and international funds are betting on buying Spanish Treasury’s stocks. In fact, Spain’s 10 years bond yielded under 3.40% on Wednesday, an unprecedented level since 2006. Interests of Italian debt stands even under that of Spanish, but Brussels’ study on the euro zone imbalances pointed Italy as the new sick man of Europe, basically due to its high public debt and the lack of reforms.
Ukraine is not enough to warm up US-German relations
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, finishes his two-day visit to Washington today with at least some unintended achievement: the U.S. and Germany agree on the importance of a truly independent and democratic Ukraine. The revolution in Kiev and the menacing attitude of Russia have prompted an unexpected rapprochement between Berlin and Washington. However, a real warming up of US-German relations seems improbable.
Could Germany do more?
BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | While Germany was receiving criticism from all sides for its surplus current account, its industry continued setting records and exporting its products all around the world and Euro zone was still strengthening its pillars for a brighter future.
Germany: Europe does not converge
FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | German people continue feeling they have to suffer the consequences of Greeces’s mistakes when figures say that Greek are twice as rich as they are as regards housing ownership. They want to help their southern neighbours with something else than money: economy and finance know-how to ease them of the severe adjustments derived from crisis.
ECB’s OMT: The trick in German Constitutional Court’s sentence
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | Germany set off a time bomb against the euro by transferring from the country’s constitutional court to European Court of Justice the decision about “legality” of ECB’s Outright Monetary Transactions’ program. Some Spanish analysts appear to be pleased with the sentence, contrarily to common sense: it is good that German Court starts to agree the European Union’s. They say that recognising Europe’s jurisprudence assures Community law’s unity. God bless their innocence.
EMU banking : well-behaved vs rogue systems?
MADRID | By Luis Martí | The European banking union project received a remarkable boost last December, even if a major chapter, the bank resolution fund, had to conform to German requirements and stay on a national basis. This part of the agreement is a moot point, and Southern countries should have raised their voices and taken a firm stand against, as Münchau also wrote, no matter the delay inflicted to the working agenda of the eurogroup.