Showing posts with label European debt crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label European debt crisis. Show all posts

Sunday, May 18, 2014

A troubled union

There’s something wrong with Europe. No one can agree what
May 17th 2014
The Economist

IS THE euro crisis over? To judge from how often the words appear in global media (down by three-quarters between early 2012 and early 2014), the answer is yes. Markets have calmed since July 2012, when the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, promised to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. Ireland and now Portugal are climbing out of their bail-out programmes. Even Greece, where the crisis began, has just sold debt.

Yet, as these books all argue, the crisis was always about more than whether financial markets would buy government debt. It raised broad worries over how countries with widely differing levels of prosperity, competitiveness, public spending and taxes, and regulation of labour and product markets, could share a currency without economic shocks blowing them apart. And it was about whether euro-zone voters would accept low growth, high unemployment and a permanent loss of sovereignty to the centre. None of these concerns has been fully dealt with.

Friday, April 4, 2014

The euro-zone economy:Frost in spring

The Economist
The recovery may be warming but inflation is cooling
Apr 5th 2014 | From the print edition
VIEWED from one perspective, the euro area is a minor miracle. Instead of collapsing in a heap, as seemed possible two years ago, the currency club is not just intact but has a new member, Latvia, which joined in January. An economic recovery has been under way since last spring and appears to be strengthening. But seen from another standpoint the euro zone is an accident waiting to happen. As inflation slips ever lower, a slide into Japanese-style deflation looks increasingly likely. That would raise an already onerous debt burden in real terms and pull down growth.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Soros Says Europe Faces 25 Years of Stagnation Without Overhaul

By Jesse Westbrook  Mar 12, 2014 12:45 PM GMT+0200
Bloomberg
Billionaire investor George Soros said Europe faces 25 years of Japanese-style stagnation unless politicians pursue further integration of the currency bloc and change policies that have discouraged banks from lending.

While the immediate financial crisis that has plagued Europe since 2010 “is over,” it still faces a political crisis that has divided the region between creditor and debtor nations, Soros, 83, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in London today. At the same time, banks have been encouraged to pass stress tests, rather than boost the economy by providing capital to businesses, he said.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Italian Bonds Gain After Nation Sells Most Debt Since May 2011

Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-13/italian-bonds-gain-after-nation-sells-most-debt-since-may-2011
By Eshe Nelson and David Goodman January 13, 2014
Italy’s government securities advanced for a second day as the nation raised the largest amount from an auction of bonds in a single day since May 2011.

The nation’s two-year note rose for the first time in four days as the government sold three-year notes at a record-low yield. German bunds gained for a second day, with 10-year yields falling to match the lowest level in four weeks, after a U.S. report last week showed companies added workers at the slowest pace since January 2011. Bonds from Spain to Greece have rallied this year amid signs the European debt crisis is easing.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

EU argues over joint rescue plan for eurozone banks

BBC
11 December 2013 Last updated at 11:31 GMT
The EU is edging towards a common mechanism for rescuing problem banks, in a drive to avoid any repetition of taxpayer-funded bailouts.
EU finance ministers finished marathon talks early on Wednesday - but they will try again next week to reach a deal on the eve of an EU summit.
Bank failures triggered the eurozone financial crises that struck the Republic of Ireland, Spain and Cyprus.
The new rescue blueprint would involve transferring powers to a new EU agency.
There are arguments over the future scope of that agency's powers - and the plan still has to be agreed with the European Parliament.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Skeptics See Euro Eroding European Unity

The New York Times
November 11, 2013
By DANNY HAKIM
LONDONEurope’s slow emergence from its second recession in the last five years is raising new questions about whether the euro currency is doing more harm than good.

Five years of crisis have laid bare deep differences in national policies, politics and priorities across the European Union. The 28-member bloc is increasingly confronting a more fundamental problem: whether it is too unwieldy to address the multiplying array of challenges it faces. And in many ways, the most divisive issues involve the 17-member subset of the union that was supposed to give them something in common — the euro currency.

Friday, November 8, 2013

The European Central Bank’s Inflation Conundrum

November 6, 2013
By JACK EWING
The New York T imes
FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank will meet on Thursday under renewed pressure to do more to stimulate the Continent’s sluggish economies, as evidence grows that the recovery is failing to pick up speed and that inflation has fallen so low as to become worrisome.

Mario Draghi, the president of the central bank, has already used a mix of threats, promises and cheap money to avoid a euro zone breakup and to help the most financially troubled governments get access to the borrowing they need. Now a growing chorus is hoping the central bank will signal a willingness to step in again.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Draghi cautious on recovery, says ECB ready to act


By Eva Taylor and Sakari Suoninen
FRANKFURT | Thu Sep 5, 2013 11:51am EDT
(Reuters) - The European Central Bank said on Thursday it was ready to cut interest rates or pump more money into the euro zone economy if needed to bring money market rates down and help the euro zone's "very, very green" recovery.

The bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent, as expected by all 60 economists polled by Reuters.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Analysis: How much Europe is too much Europe?

By Luke Baker
BRUSSELS | Sun Sep 1, 2013 2:03pm EDT
(Reuters) - In the dark days of Europe's debt crisis in 2012, when it seemed Greece might be forced out of the euro and the single currency could implode, leaders believed "more Europe" was the only answer.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Europe Heads Toward Recovery, but Slowly

German Growth Helps Drive Euro Zone to End of Longest Recession in Decades, Though Severe Unemployment Likely to Persist
By CHARLES FORELLE in London, NINA ADAM in Frankfurt and ILAN BRAT in MadridCONNECT
The Wall Street Journal

Europe's longest recession since World War II appears to be on the verge of ending, driven by a surge in German growth that is helping to blunt the severe economic pain faced by many in the region, but is too modest to lift the global outlook.

Monday, July 22, 2013

U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew urges Greece to stick with reforms

ATHENS | Sun Jul 21, 2013 11:15am EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urged Greece on Sunday to persevere with tough economic reforms during a one-day trip to Athens designed to demonstrate Washington's support for the crisis-plagued country.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Euro Becomes the Port in a Storm

As Central Banks Mull Pullback of Easy Money, Investors Turn to Relatively Stable European Currency
By MATTHEW WALTER and NICOLE HONG
The Wall Street Journal
The euro is emerging as an unlikely oasis in the latest bout of market turmoil.

Assets ranging from Japanese stocks to emerging-market bonds to U.S. Treasurys have slumped this spring, as investors brace for the possible pullback from easy-money policies by the world's major central banks. But the euro has largely avoided the volatile trading that has whipsawed other currencies, including the dollar and the Japanese yen, gaining about 4% against the greenback over the past four weeks to trade late Friday at $1.3345, near a four-month high.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Softer Austerity Message As EU Sets New Budget Goals

The Wall Street Journal
By MATINA STEVIS and LAURENCE NORMAN
BRUSSELS—The European Commission confirmed Wednesday that it was giving France, Spain, the Netherlands and two other countries extra time to meet their deficit targets as Brussels softened its insistence on austerity-first policies.

France, the European Union's second-biggest economy, received two extra years to cut its deficit to 3% of gross domestic product, pushing the deadline to 2015. The commission is proposing a deficit target of 3.9% of GDP for this year and 3.6% in 2014.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

ECB says has tools left to act if needed



By Sakari Suoninen and Martin Santa
AACHEN, Germany/BRUSSELS | Wed May 8, 2013 1:45pm EDT
(Reuters) - The European Central Bank still has room to maneuver should the euro zone economy continue to worsen after it cut interest rates to a new record low last week, ECB policymakers said on Wednesday.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Cyprus bail-out


This septic isle

Being tough on bank creditors could prove costly for northern European taxpayers
The Economist
Mar 30th 2013 |From the print edition

THE second deal to bail out Cyprus was much better than the first. For one thing, there was actually a deal: with the €10 billion ($13 billion) loan the prospect of the euro zone’s first exit has receded. An agreement among euro-zone finance ministers to wind up Laiki Bank, Cyprus’s second-biggest bank, and restructure Bank of Cyprus, the largest lender on the island, undid the worst elements of the initial botched agreement. Savers with accounts below the €100,000 deposit-guarantee threshold will be spared. Losses will hit creditors of weak banks in line with the normal hierarchy: shareholders and junior bondholders first, followed by senior bondholders and uninsured depositors.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Euro Zone’s Slinky Economy


March 27, 2013, 11:32 AM EST
ByAlen Mattich
The Wall Street Journal
Remember the Slinky, the toy spring that compresses and extends to walk down stairs, bounce off tables and generally amuse children for minutes at a time?

Well, the Slinky is a fair mechanical approximation of the euro zone economy.

Except it’s not so entertaining.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Cyprus seeks Russian rescue, EU threatens cutoff


By Michele Kambas and Lidia Kelly
NICOSIA/MOSCOW | Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:58am EDT
(Reuters) - Cyprus pleaded for a new loan from Russia on Wednesday to avert a financial meltdown, after the island's parliament rejected the terms of a bailout from the EU, raising the risk of default and a bank crash.

Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris said he had not reached a deal at a first meeting with his Russian counterpart Anton Siluanov in Moscow, but talks there would continue.

EU Member States, Lawmakers Reach Deal on Bank Supervisor


By Dow Jones Business News,  March 19, 2013, 11:15:00 AM EDT

BRUSSELS--The creation of a single supervisor for European banks moved a step closer Tuesday when European lawmakers struck a deal with member states on the structure of the new agency.
The deal leaves in place most of the main points agreed by European Union finance ministers in December for how the supervisor should function.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Italy’s Borrowing Costs Rise at Bond Auction After Downgrade


By Chiara Vasarri - Mar 13, 2013 2:39 PM GMT+0200
Bloomberg
Italian borrowing costs rose in the first bond auction since a credit rating downgrade last week that highlighted the economic risks of the country’s current political stalemate.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Europe's Rising Social and Political Risks


Posted: 03/11/2013 12:13 pm
Daniel WagnerCEO, Country Risk Solutions
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/europes-rising-social-and_b_2853191.html
While income inequality has been falling globally since the 1980s, it has been rising in most of Europe. The Gini Coefficient, a widely used measure of income inequality, has risen since that time not only in Eastern Europe, but among Europe's wealthiest societies.