Foreign leaders, countries, international bodies and major world entities of any kind are supporting the ‘stay’ option for Britain ahead of 23 June referendum, about the country’s position in or out of the European Union. The American President Barack Obama and the Chinese and the Indian governments have expressly supported the ‘stay’ option, to mention […]Why does the whole world want Britain to stay in the EU?
June 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Foreign leaders, countries, international bodies and major world entities of any kind are supporting the ‘stay’ option for Britain ahead of 23 June referendum, about the country’s position in or out of the European Union. The American President Barack Obama and the Chinese and the Indian governments have expressly supported the ‘stay’ option, to mention […]For how long and at what cost can the ECB continue printing trillions to keep euro area going?
June 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Tuesday Eurostat, the EU statistical service issued a Press release revealing that the GDP of Eurozone (EU19) and EU28 rose in the first quarter of this year by 1.7% and 1.8% respectively, compared with the same three-month period of 2015. On the yearly developments platform, there is more good news. The same source revealed […]Unemployment and exclusion brings EU cities to boiling point
June 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Tuesday Eurostat, the EU statistical service release its latest estimates about the April unemployment rate and May inflation in Eurozone, which unfortunately didn’t diverge markedly from the gloomy predictions of analysts. This week however, the same source published a very interesting survey about the labor market situation in EU. It’s a special report about […]Has the treacherous theory about the ‘French patient’ finally prevailed?
May 30, 2016 by 1 Comment
The overwhelming labor reforms that the French government is currently finding very difficult to introduce, are also posing a crucial dilemma for the entire Eurozone. The ‘liberalization’ of the labor market has already traumatized Italy and the rest of the south European countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal. The northerners have already ‘solved’ this problem, […]Another doomed EU attempt to interfere in Libya?
May 26, 2016 by 1 Comment
Last Monday, the Italian coastguard rescued a round number of 2,000 immigrants and refugees in the central Mediterranean off the Libyan waters. In those fifteen operations the Italian coastguard was aided by two ships of the country’s navy, another two ships operated by the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières – MSF) […]Real EU unemployment rate at 10.2%+4.1%+4.7%: Eurostat Update
May 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This newspaper has been closely following the evolution of real unemployment over the past few years, on the base of Eurostat statistics. It has proved that real unemployment is much higher than the official rates. In January 2014 the European Sting, using Eurostat data, found that, in the third quarter of 2013 real unemployment was […]Conflicting statistics and bad banks haunt the Eurozone
May 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last week, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, released its flash estimate of the GDP of the first quarter of 2016, finding it, in both the Eurozone and the EU28, to be 0.5% bigger in comparison to the previous period. In the fourth quarter of 2015, GDP had also grown by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. Does […]Why do overwhelming proportions of EU’s youth feel excluded?
May 16, 2016 by 1 Comment
The Eurobarometer, the public opinion analysis tool of the European Commission, interviewed 10,294 Europeans aged between 16 and 30 in the 28 EU member states between 9 and 25 April 2016, and found that most of them feel economically and socially marginalized by the crisis. Of course, there are incredible differences among the member state countries, […]EU readies for eventual annulment of the Turkish agreement on immigrants-refugees
May 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The highly possible collapse of the EU-Turkey agreement about the management of the refugee and immigrant flows in the Aegean Sea, has rang alarms in Brussels. Alexander Winterstein, the Deputy Chief Spokesperson of the European Commission denied the existence of a plan B, in case the Turks repudiate the pact which the just dismissed Prime […]Is Erdogan ready to tear down the bridges with Europe and the West?
May 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the 12th Turkish President cut short the spell of ‘rapprochement’, between his country and the European Union, by briefly dismissing Prime Minister Ahment Davutoglu. The latter was the architect of the relevant March agreement concluded in Brussels, meant to regulate the flows of refugees and immigrants in the Aegean Sea. By the […]Eurozone’s central bank leadership prepares for shoddier prospects
May 4, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It has become commonplace to state that the European economy still doesn’t fare well after six years of recession or practical stagnation. For good reasons however in the past few days the horizon looked particularly darkened. Negative statistical evidence and meandering statements by key people are indicative of that. Inflation or rather disinflation statistics, persistently […]Europe bows to Turkey’s rulers, sends Syrian refugees back to chaos
April 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Saturday we learned from his own lips that the President of the European Council Donald Tusk has “thick skin”. Of course, people who follow the political day-to-day of the Council already knew it. Tusk made this statement last Saturday from Turkey, a country where thick skin politicians are in abundance. The President of the […]Why the ECB had to clarify it caters for the entire Eurozone not just Germany?
April 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday morning this newspaper concluded that the “only EU institution with true European motives and vision remains the European Central Bank of Mario Draghi”. Just some hours later in that Thursday afternoon the European Sting was confirmed one hundred percent by Mario Draghi, the President of ECB, who said that “We have a mandate […]No hard drivers in sight to remodel the stagnating affairs of the EU
April 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It’s a tautological statement to say that the euro area is an economy which barely moves ahead, towards producing more jobs and incomes for the tens of millions of the unemployed and materially deprived. However, it seems that it’s worse than that. Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, said it plainly in […]Who cares more about taxpayers? The US by being harsh on major banks or the EU still caressing them?
April 18, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The world economy remains more or less motionless or even recedes six years after the financial meltdown, because the banking industry has not yet decided what’s best for its interests. Continue leveraging itself (borrowing) on central bank liquidity in a stagnating environment, or start deleveraging and send the world to another deep recession, if not […]The EU checks the multinationals for tax fraud but Britain may sail out of the EU via Panama
April 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Panama Papers did not offer to the world community much more news than most people already knew. For example, the ‘revelation’ that a close friend to the Russian President Vladimir Putin was enormously rich without having labored for his wealth, is no news at all. Every Russian or informed citizen in the entire world […]The Monetary Union drives Europe into dangerous paths, CoR demands an EMU of regional content
April 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday 7 April, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) concluded that there is “No successful reform of the Economic and Monetary Union without a regional dimension”. Indirectly, this means the EMU remains a system just to support the banking industry. In other words, the banks are still completely unregulated, high flying and counting […]EU-Turkey deal on migrants kicked off but to who’s interest?
April 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday, 4 April, Greece and Turkey kicked off the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement. For migrants and refugees alike it foresees deportation from the Greek islands to Turkey, just some dangerous miles eastwards, over rough sea straights at times. Ankara is to receive from Brussels € 3+3 billion for that. During the past twelve […]No recovery for EU economy in sight and a Brexit can aggravate things for everyone
April 4, 2016 by 1 Comment
The Eurozone economy doesn’t seem able to gain a sustainable growth path, despite the hundreds of billions that, lately, European Central Bank has injected into the financial system. Analysts say, though, that ECB’s intervention came too late. There is more bad news for the real economy coming from the prices front. Last week, Eurostat, the […]US – Russia bargain on Syria, Ukraine but EU kept out
March 31, 2016 by Leave a Comment
President Bashar al-Assad’s regular Syrian army aided by Lebanon Hezbollah fighters plus some Iranians, and of course under the air cover of Russia’s fighter jets last week pushed the ISIS murderers out of the ancient city of Palmyra. Reportedly, a Russian ground special force played also a role in this decisive battle, that probably constitutes […]For how long will terror and economic stagnation be clouding the European skies?
March 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Some days ago the European statistical service, Eurostat confirmed that the inflation rate in the euro area for February was well into the negative part of the chart at -0.2%. This is an infallible sign that Eurozone remains in the stagnation or even the recession region of the economic cycle for a sixth year in […]Is there a chance for the West to win the war on terror?
March 24, 2016 by Leave a Comment
On the night of 13 November 2015 in Paris, after the ISIS operatives had hit almost simultaneously a concert hall, a major football stadium and some restaurants and bars leaving 130 dead and hundreds injured, the French President Francois Hollande said “we are at war”. Last Tuesday morning the same kind of ‘armed forces’ and […]Merkel had it her way with the refugees & immigrants but can Greece and Turkey deliver?
March 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Early in the morning of 7th March, ahead of the first meeting in the series of the latest traumatic gatherings of the 28 EU leaders with the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, this newspaper argued that the EU had to prove on that day it could remain in one piece. This didn’t happen then. Last […]Why is Merkel’s Germany so liberal with the refugees? Did the last elections change that?
March 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment
There are many lessons to be learned from last Sunday’s elections in Germany. For one thing, the widely expected electoral setback that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) experienced last Sunday doesn’t seem to constitute a major blow to her dominant political status. She continues to be the central […]ECB’s new money bonanza handed out to help the real economy or create new bubbles?
March 14, 2016 by 1 Comment
Last Thursday the European Central Bank announced it will pump extra piles of freshly printed money into Eurozone’s banking system. The President of ECB, Mario Draghi said that he will be delivering €80 billion a month for the public bonds owned by banks for as long as it is needed. On top of this, the […]Who is to pay the dearest price in a global slowdown?
March 10, 2016 by Leave a Comment
What happens in China is more important for the European economy than a meagre fall of unemployment in the Eurozone. Last Tuesday, China said its February exports dived by a record 25.4%, fuelling new fears for a bigger slowdown in the world economy. At the same time, a Press release by Eurostat, the EU statistical […]The EU has to prove it can remain one piece
March 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Today the European Union has to prove that it can solve its stalemate, which the immigrant and refugee flows from Asia and Africa have created. Some years ago nobody could imagine that an unseen before movement of people, could lead to the unraveling of the EU project. To deal with this problem, the 28 EU […]Pumping more money into banks but leaving them unregulated doesn’t help
March 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
On Thursday 25 February, this newspaper concluded that “the other major central banks in Europe, China, Japan and elsewhere appear ready to fill the gap that the Fed plans to leave in the ‘money for nothin’ game”. This week’s developments completely justified this prediction. The immediate result is a new appreciation of the dollar with […]Syria: Why did the US now take the Russian offer for a truce? What next?
February 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The US-Russia plan for a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria, endorsed by the UN Security Council on Friday 26 February kicked off in the early hours of Saturday and two days after is still more or less observed. Understandably the cease-fire may collapse at any moment but the US and Russia seem determined to keep […]What have the banks done to the markets making them unable to bear cheap oil?
February 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Tuesday, a new steep fall of the price of crude oil by almost 5%, triggered another selloff in all the major capital markets of the world. The New York and the European stock exchanges lost anything between 2% and 3% of their capitalization. One may observe that this development is one of many of […]What little Cameron got in Brussels seems enough to keep Britain in the EU
February 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Even since 18 January this newspaper was convinced that David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, was ready to campaign for his country to remain in the European Union. A few days later, the European Sting prediction was more or less confirmed by Cameron’s speech delivered at the Davos World Economic Forum on January 21, where he […]The Syrian knot cannot be cut without devastating consequences
February 18, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Brussels seems quite lost with what is happening now in Syria. The statement issued last Monday 15 February by the European High Representative Mogherini and Commissioner Stylianides on the atrocious and murderous attacks on hospitals and schools in Syria stands as an infallible witness to that. At this point in time, the foreign powers, regional or […]Can the next financial crisis be avoided?
February 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The descent of prices in the world capital markets continued almost unhindered this past week and only last Friday financial, oil and commodity values gained some limited grounds. Altogether however, the major stock markets have erased trillions off their capitalization since last June, when the dark clouds gathered above the Chinese mega-cities of Shanghai and […]
