This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Tuesday, Mario Draghi outlined his blueprint for improving Europe’s competitiveness through closer cooperation in core areas and massive investment in shared objectives. Mr Draghi, author of a report on European competitiveness requested by the President of the European Commission, said that the EU […]Draghi to MEPs: “Europe faces a choice between exit, paralysis, or integration”
September 18, 2024 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Tuesday, Mario Draghi outlined his blueprint for improving Europe’s competitiveness through closer cooperation in core areas and massive investment in shared objectives. Mr Draghi, author of a report on European competitiveness requested by the President of the European Commission, said that the EU […]Draghi to lay his print on long term ECB policies prior to exiting next year
September 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, was criticized by major global financial media for insisting to end the easy money policy this December. The argument is that, after ECB’s Governing Council decided at the end of the prosperous 2017 to end its extraordinary monetary policy, the world has become a riskier place. […]Draghi rehabs ECB into a tool to support growth and employment; a departure from Teutonic orthodoxy
November 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
On Thursday 22 October Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank delighted the world capital markets with his comment about the “factors that are currently slowing the return of inflation to levels below, but close to, 2% in the medium term” He added that “In this context, the degree of monetary policy accommodation […]ECB: Euro area should smooth out the consumption and income shocks of its members
June 4, 2015 by 1 Comment
Last Tuesday Brussels celebrated the return of the Eurozone inflation to positive grounds after five straight months of deflation (negative inflation). Some EU Commission economists, among others, assume that three positive decimal points of change of the level of consumer prices in May (0.3%), can signal the return of the economy to growth. Under an […]More billions needed to help Eurozone recover; ECB sidesteps German objections about QE
May 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Eurozone economy has been taking two steps forward and one step backward over the past few months. The minimal increase of the GDP growth rate to 0.4% during the first quarter of this year and the equally small increase of people in employment was accompanied by a fall of industrial production and a decrease […]ECB with an iron hand disciplines the smaller Eurozone member states; latest victim: Greece
March 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi reacted strongly while answering a MEP’s question in the European legislature. He was asked if the ECB is “blackmailing” and financially “suffocating” Greece. As expected, he denied the accusations. Was he right though? Rather not. Only some hours afterwards the central bank ordered the […]ECB’s billions fortify south Eurozone except Greece; everybody rushes to invest in euro area bonds zeroing their yields
March 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Even without having spent yet a single euro the European Central Bank’s program of sovereign bond buying of €60 billion a month has had an enormous impact on world financial markets. It suppressed the euro dollar parity from the unbearably high levels of 2014 (1.39 on 9 March 2014) to 1.08510 last Friday, the lowest […]Can ECB’s €60 billion a month save Eurozone?
March 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The European Central Bank as from this March will start pumping into the Eurozone economy extra liquidity of €60 billion a month of freshly printed money. The details of this extraordinary policy measure will be revealed tomorrow Thursday by Mario Draghi the President of ECB, in his regular Press conference after the Governing Council meeting […]Greece at the mercy of ECB while sailing through uncharted waters
February 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
In the efforts to solve the latest Greek enigma, the European Central Bank has once more proved that when it comes to what matters more in the EU, the Eurozone, it constitutes the power house of the entire European edifice. The ECB emerges imbued by truly pan-European motives in serving the Union project. When the […]Greece to stay in the euro area but the cost to its people remains elusive
February 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The frantic search of the Greek government – pressed at home by an accelerating bank run which culminated last Friday with €1 billion withdrawals in a few hours – to achieve an agreement with its Eurozone partners ended up in an almost total retreat of Athens in front of its creditors. The Greek minister of […]Greece: The new government of Alexis Tsipras shows its colors
January 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Alexis Tsipras, the new Prime Minister of Greece and leader of the radical militant left SYRIZA party, who won last Sunday’s legislative election with a 36.34% of the vote and fell short of an absolute majority by two seats in a Parliament of 300, presented on Tuesday his new awkward coalition government. He had promised […]The financial war touches Frankfurt and Berlin
December 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Early next year the world is going to watch the culmination of the battle between Mario Draghi the President of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main and Wolfgang Schäuble, the powerful German Minister of Finance based in Berlin. In this affair Draghi represents the will of the advanced world financial markets, including the […]The banks first to benefit from the new euro trillion ECB plans to print
November 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last week, all the major media reported a deep division in the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, over a Mario Draghi policy proposal to pump more freshly printed money into the struggling Eurozone economy. Nevertheless, the European Sting very early in the morning of Thursday 6 November, before the meeting of the Council, […]Is the ECB ready to flood Eurozone with freshly printed money?
November 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The insatiable appetite of the global financial system for more free cash from central banks has now reached the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. After the American central bank, the Fed, announced last month that it discontinues its quantitative easing policy, under which it has supplied the US banks with around $ 4 […]ECB to buy corporate bonds: Will government financing be the next step?
October 23, 2014 by 1 Comment
Last Monday, the European Central Bank initiated its covered bank bonds buying programme. But it wasn’t until the major international news agencies started reporting information early on Tuesday from ECB unidentified sources about its plans for corporate bond purchases too, and only then the central bank policies had an immediate and conspicuous effect on real […]ECB’s unconventional monetary measures give first tangible results
August 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment
A strong statement was delivered last week by Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank. He ascertained that the monetary measures already taken unanimously by the central bank’s Governing Council, “will enhance our accommodative monetary policy stance”. Those measures have led to an easing of the euro/dollar parity favouring a cheaper single money, a […]The Peoples are missing from EU’s monetary union
July 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The disenchantment of the 28 European Peoples with their Union stems from the special care the EU institutions clearly show for the financial sector aka the banks and not for the unemployed. To put it differently so as the Brussels bureaucrats and the decision makers in Berlin and Paris can understand; the European Economic and […]ECB again to subsidize euro area banks with more than one trillion euro
July 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Governing Council of European Central Bank decided last week to hand out to Eurozone banks additional liquidity of up to €1 trillion at almost zero cost, under its new targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTROs). At the same time it also decided to “intensify preparatory work related to outright purchases in the Asset Backed Securities […]ECB bets billions on Eurozone’s economic recovery
June 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Wednesday, one day ahead of the regular monthly meeting of European Central Bank’s Governing Council, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, published a Press release on Eurozone’s near zero economic growth. The relevant passage of that text went like this, “Seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 0.2% in the euro area (EA18) and by 0.3% in […]The EU Commission by serving the banks offers poor support to European mainstream political parties
May 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The 2008-2012 financial aka banking crisis and its devastating repercussions on the European Union, with deep recession and skyrocketing unemployment, are the main reasons why the EU political and economic establishment shivers ahead of the 22-25 May elections fearing a possible disastrous result. Eurosceptic extremists, nationalists and harlequins may occupy an increased part of the […]ECB readies itself for extraordinary monetary measures defying Germany
March 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment
In direct antithesis with the German Federal Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schauble, Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, raised yesterday the issue of the deflation risk (negative inflation, most prices fall) which could possibly engulf Eurozone. Draghi, after receiving the ‘Schumpeter Preis’ in a ceremony for the Schumpeter Award, at the Oesterreichische […]Eurozone hasn’t escaped the deflation danger
December 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, confirmed its own inflation rate estimate for November at 0.9% in the Eurozone; that is two decimal points higher than in October. However, this doesn’t mean that inflation took the upward path neither does it indicate that growth has already started pressing consumer prices to higher levels. It must be […]A day that Berlin and Brussels would remember for a long time
December 17, 2013 by 1 Comment
It was not by accident that the President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi chose the right time to ring the danger bell against a “bad Banking Union”, while speaking yesterday in the Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Obviously, he wanted to be heard by the new German government which is expected […]Draghi will not hesitate to zero ECB’s basic interest rate
December 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Combining what Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, said yesterday about low inflation projections and the Governing Council’s forward guidance of the economy, the conclusion one can draw is that, the ECB’s basic interest rate will remain at its present (0.25%) or lower levels for the next two years, at least well […]ECB’s Draghi favours a cheaper euro to serve all Eurozone countries
November 29, 2013 by 2 Comments
György Matolcsy, the controversial Hungarian politician and economist, currently serving as governor of his country’s central bank, handpicked for the job by the equally controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban, reported that the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi has set the ceiling for the euro/dollar parity at 1/1.30. This is something Draghi has […]Eurozone: Retail sales and inflation point to recession
November 12, 2013 by 2 Comments
Retail sales in Eurozone point to recession, having lost in September a part of their volume. According to Eurostat, “In September 2013 compared with August 2013, “Food, drinks and tobacco” fell by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.5% in the EU28. The non-food sector decreased by 0.1% in the euro area, but rose […]Berlin cannot dictate anymore the terms for the enactment of the European Banking Union
November 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday 8 November, the European Central Bank (ECB) published its opinion on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) and Fund, fully supporting the European Commission’s position on their enactment, needed to accomplish the European Banking Union. The opinion is in direct contrast with the positions held by Germany, because it contains the following three essential […]ECB offers cheaper money despite reactions from Germany
November 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the European Central Bank, in a swift move, reduced its basic interest rate to 0.25% from 0.5%. The decision was taken by the Governing Council of the bank, in its regular meeting which takes place on the first Thursday of every month. This decision has reportedly taken the capital markets by surprise, but this […]CDU-SPD agree the terms for EU’s Banking Union
November 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
With the talks on the formation of a coalition government, involving Angela Merkel’s CDU and the German socialists of SPD having progressed as far as to cover the issue of Eurozone’s bank resolution mechanism, it seems that the main elements of an agreement over the completion of the European Banking Union are now in place. […]ECB embarks on the risky trip to Eurozone banking universe
October 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) of Eurozone banks has completed its cycle of approvals by all EU institutions and comes into force as from next month. After one year from now, that is as from November 2014, the European Central Bank will be responsible for the health of Eurozone’s banking system. Under the provisions of […]ECB should offer more and cheaper liquidity if Eurozone is to avoid recession
October 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The fact that monetary policy is the only common policy applied invariably in the 18 still widely diverging Eurozone economies, means that the European Central Bank is the unique euro area institution, which thinks and acts on a really European level. In this respect, the latest statements by its President, Mario Draghi, are quite pertinent. […]The Parliament paves the way for the creation of the European Banking Union
October 18, 2013 by 2 Comments
Today, 18 October, is the last day for MEPs to table their amendments with the Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Committee, in the process of formulating the legislature’s proposal for an EU mechanism to sort out troubled banks. This is the much debated bank resolution and recovery mechanism and fund. The Committee vote is planned for […]Eurozone and Britain heading in different directions
October 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, confirmed yesterday that its ‘flash estimate’ of September inflation at 1.1% is correct. In a brief Press release, the Service announced that, “Euro area annual inflation was 1.1% in September 2013, down from 1.3% in August. A year earlier the rate was 2.6%. Monthly inflation was 0.5% in September 2013”. […]
