A curated selection of links we hope can enlighten us all; some come from our corner, some do from other corners of the net. And as always, our comment widgets are anxious to get your suggestions. Europe needs a new …Napoleon Here they come, the peripherals rebel! If you are looking for EU imbalances, try the German surplus What the German commentators think of the ECB’s LTROs Places women (and everyone…
By Julia Pastor and Tania Suarez, in Madrid | Pablo Díez, at Nordkapp’s asset management department argues that implementation of austerity as the only measure to sort the crisis out will bring social chaos in Europe. Yet, Díez is unsure about how right Spain’s president Mariano Rajoy is in rejecting the deficit target of 4.4% this year. Do you think it would have been ‘suicidal’ to commit Spain to Brussels’…
LONDON | Odd. After months of mild fireworks of demonstrations against austerity throughout Spain, it seems hard to believe that Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, international economics editor at The Daily Telegraph, would be struck. Even president Mariano Rajoy acknowledged that his reform plans for the labour market would probably spark a general strike. But Evans-Pritchard was struck, nevertheless: “In the twenty years or so that I have been following EU affairs closely, I cannot remember such a…
The letter that the heads of government of twelve EU countries, including Spain’s Mariano Rajoy, sent to Brussels presented an eight point programme to promote economic growth in the European Union. It was addressed to the president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and that of the Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, yet was not signed by either Germany or France, the two main economies of the euro zone…
By Enrique Quemada Clariana, in Madrid | As we are M&A advisors, last week a German investment fund visited us in Madrid with the intention of giving us a mandate to search for Spanish industrial companies on sale. They think there are great opportunities in Spain. Their belief is that there will be an ‘inverse delocalization’, which means that, given the crisis that has taken place in the last five years and…
By Luis Martí, in Madrid | In an understandable effort to correct serious original defects, the European Union has decided to adopt the fiscal compact promised in the European Council declaration of last November 9. This now is presented to us as none other than the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, open for member countries to sign after the January 30 summit. For the German Chancellor this…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Every country in Europe is holding up against the neverending financial crisis as Germany does, but the country ‘cannot rest on its oars’ in order to keep its role as Europe’s biggest economy. This is the major conclusion from the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s economic survey of German, published in Berlin on Tuesday. It is true that Germany’s strength and economic…
By Lidia Conde, in Frankfort | ‘Is the world coming to an end?‘ That was the headline of a feature on the financial crisis published by the Hamburg intellectual weekly Die Zeit. The answer of the many experts and professionals consulted was: yes. Die Zeit quoted Karlheinz Kögel, an entrepreneur from Tyrol specialized in the sale of survival ration packages: powdered milk, cereal bars and tins of meat and chili with an expiry…
By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | Europe seems to witness with sheer indifference the Greek slide into utter ruin. Not so long ago Ms Merkel used to stress her unshakeable resolve not to let down any euro country. But the German finance Minister is currently pushing the Hellenic government towards the exit door. What has happened for such a U-turn? To begin with, fears about financial system contagion…
LONDON | Lloyds TSB, the 40pc taxpayer-owned British bank, wondered how much savings UK families have and how this compare to Germany and China. Its researchers came up with some answers: the British household savings ratio (saving proportion of a consumer’s disposable income) has seen a steep downward trend over the past decade, in contrast with the other two countries. The results from Lloyds new survey were set alongside numbers…