What Telefonica did in Germany this summer
MADRID | By Francisco López, via consensodelmercado.com | Telefonica had an important reason for its well-timed U-turn: the Spanish corporation wanted to conquer a mature market with scope for expansion.
Germany
Telefonica to become Europe’s second top operator after German acquisition
MADRID | The agreement for the acquisition of KPN’s German subsidiary, E-Plus, includes a total payment of 5 billion euros in cash and a stake in the resulting company of 17.6%.
The trouble with German banks
By Beate Reszat | German financial institutions and their regulators have developed a high level of bad-bank sophistication. But there’s still room for unpleasant surprises.
Tuesday’s Eurozone chart: peripherals on recovery path, Germany contracts
LONDON/MADRID | Financial analysts in Madrid noted today the positive surprise of a recovery tendency among Eurozone peripheral economies, particularly those of Italy and Spain.
Banking union: advancing in fits and starts
BARCELONA | CaixaBank research | The German proposal for an alternative Banking Union are destined to fail: mere cooperation between national authorities would not guarantee that decisions are taken in the interest of Europe’s financial system as a whole.
Germany gives Obama a cold reception
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | The US president visited his key ally in Europe amid tensions caused by the American surveillance program, their use of German military bases for drone strikes and Obama’s disagreement with chancellor Angela Merkel on how to handle the euro crisis.
German savers should fear Berlin, not the European Central Bank
MADRID | By Luis Martí | The German government could also be drawn in as an expropriator of sorts: it is still an issuer of debt at a real yield equally negative for their nationals.
Would you work in Germany for €1.32 an hour?
FRANKFORT | What are the ingredients of that Germany’s economic magic potion? There is one worth bearing in mind: the dismantling of the social welfare.
The Constitutional Court of Germany set to judge the Eurozone
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | Governments in Berlin must speak up their minds, instead of using the national judiciary system and some probable legal ambiguities to delay the urgent steps of more integration.
China-Germany relations: dream team or pipe dream?
Angela Merkel refuses to levy tariffs of 47% on Chinese solar panel imports because she fears damaging China-Germany relations and being shut out of its market. However, in Ray Kwong’s view, Berlin is too dependent on China’s economic engine, which could crack anytime due to territorial conflicts, too-rapid expansion of credit, lax environmental oversight, widening discontent among the population and many other legitimate problems.