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 […]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 […]Does Draghi have another ace up his sleeve given his Quantitative Easing failure?
March 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, released a flash estimate for euro area annual inflation revealing a -0,2% inflation rate for February. The latter has worried the European Central Bank’s (ECB) officials and especially its president Mario Draghi. ECB’s Governing Council meeting which is taking place next week will have to reconsider […]2016 crisis update: the year of the Red Fire Monkey burns the world’s markets down
February 10, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Chinese New Year began two days ago and has brought already significant turbulences and volatilities to the global financial markets and economies. Luckily for the world’s second largest economy, Chinese stock markets are closed due to New Year’s festivities and haven’t experienced, at least yet, the losses of the European, U.S. and Japanese markets. This […]Draghi drafts a plan to donate more money to bankers, the era of ‘money for nothin’ is flourishing
February 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The European Central Bank announced last week that under its extraordinary Asset Purchase Program (APP), it has injected €712.3 billion into the euro area financial system until January this year. Out of that, €544.2bn are Eurozone government and public entities bonds, bought under the Public Sector Purchase Program (PSPP). This last plan was decided in […]Is there a way out of the next financial crisis? Can more printed money or austerity save us all?
February 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Every time Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, tries to fight very low inflation and indirectly support growth and job creation in Eurozone with monetary measures, the Germans stand in his way. Last Thursday 28 January, Jens Weidmann, the governor of the German central bank the Bundesbank, did it again. In an […]Why are the financial markets shivering again?
January 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The major central banks of the world are currently in the middle of a precise but of dubious results surgical operation on capital markets. On the one hand, the monetary authorities aim at supporting the real economy by injecting more cash into the financial system. On the other, they try to mitigate the risky super […]EU to pay a dear price if the next crisis catches Eurozone stagnant and deflationary; dire statistics from Eurostat
January 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Amidst the historically worst first week of a year since stock exchange records exist, the Eurozone economy remains stagnant and appears clearly unable to offer itself and the rest of the global economy a sigh of relief. All along the first week of the New Year Eurostat kept airing quite disappointing statistics for the Eurozone […]Capital markets selloff: The financial moguls send messages to monetary authorities
January 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The wild selloff in the major capital markets of the world that culminated last Monday, the first working day of the New Year and continued on Wednesday for a fifth day in row was not just an overreaction to the anticipated slowdown of the Chinese economy, as almost all chief analysts assumed in mainstream media. […]ECB money bonanza not enough to revive euro area, Germany longs to rule with stagnation
December 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
During the days ahead of last Thursday’s 3 December meeting of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, financial markets and market oriented media had been pressing for a stronger monetary accommodation (easing), than what President Mario Draghi finally announced in the afternoon of that day. As a result, the euro appreciated markedly with the dollar […]Draghi tells the Parliament the ECB to use all its weaponry; euro slides to parity with the dollar
November 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Undoubtedly, Mario Draghi’s speeches and comments are being carefully monitored, analyzed and discounted by government decision makers, capital market experts and of course the Press. Invariably, this was the case last week, when the President of the European Central Bank appeared before the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. ECB’s accountability to the European […]Family incomes stagnate in the EU; people excluded from ‘moderate recovery’
November 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Brussels Eurocrats are trying to convince us all that the European economy, after the 2008-2010 fallout, is now on the right track towards an era of growth and financial security. However, real people out there are still waiting to taste the benefits of this impalpable improvement. Apart from the fact that Eurostat, the EU […]The Commission sees ‘moderate recovery’ but prospects deteriorate
November 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission released last week its “Autumn 2015 Economic Forecast”, advertising ‘moderate recovery’ for the European Union and the euro area. Understandably, the Commission wouldn’t dig deeper in the economy, to highlight the negative aspects of the present status and the subdued prospects for next year. For a number of important reasons the executive […]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 […]Why the ECB prepares to flood the markets with more and free of charge euro; everybody needs that now
October 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Mario Draghi’s statement of last Thursday from Malta that the European Central Bank’s “monetary policy accommodation will need to be re-examined at our December monetary policy meeting”, offered a strong support to all major capital markets, with stocks gaining a lot of ground and the euro receding slightly. Understandably, a generous increase of ECB’s monthly […]Eurozone stuck in a high risk deflation area; Draghi expects further price plunge
October 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
This newspaper has been following very closely the Eurostat statistics, including inflation, which paint an accurate picture of Eurozone’s economic condition. Then, not without good reason, during the last few months or even years the European Sting didn’t share the reserved optimism of Brussels about euro area’s prospects and unfortunately Eurostat confirmed this prediction once […]How close is Eurozone to a new recession which may trigger formidable developments?
September 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
According to the latest statistics published in August by Eurostat, the EU statistical service, the euro area economy grew by a meager 0.3% during the second quarter of this year. Despite the fact that the mere three decimal points of more gross product typically illustrate a positive development for the Eurozone economy, there are other […]A new global financial crisis develops fast; who denies it?
August 31, 2015 by Leave a Comment
During the last two weeks the world’s largest stock markets had a wild time not seen since Lehman Brothers went bust on 15 September 2008. The New York stock exchange in Wall Street lost more than 8% of its capitalization in a few days and then recovered some of the losses to close last Friday […]Yanis Varoufakis: “Unsustainable debt turns the creditor into Leviathan; Life under it is becoming nasty, brutish and short”
August 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Lethal Deferral of Greek Debt Restructuring Written by Yanis Varoufakis ATHENS – The point of restructuring debt is to reduce the volume of new loans needed to salvage an insolvent entity. Creditors offer debt relief to get more value back and to extend as little new finance to the insolvent entity as possible. Remarkably, […]Is the ECB enforcing the will of the big Eurozone member states on the small? Can the euro area live with that?
July 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewing the political or economic events in retrospect always gives the observer a privileged position. This is the point where Benoît Cœuré – a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank – found himself at an interview last Monday. At some point he was asked if the ECB had suffocated Greece’s commercial […]Is Europe ready to cooperate with the rest of the world? Can Germany change its selfish policies?
July 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
For a long time now the European Union is accused by the rest of the world for the severe austerity and recessionary economic policies it follows, also imposing them on crisis stricken euro area member states like Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. This is so despite the fact that the Eurozone economy as a whole […]Tsipras imposes more austerity on insolvent Greece; plans to win new early election soon
July 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
On 9 July this newspaper predicted that the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was adamant about keeping his country in the Eurozone. In order to do this the Sting foresaw that he was prepared not only to pay a dear price for a third bailout scheme (April 2010, June 2012 and July 2015) financed by […]Tsipras bewildered with Berlin’s humiliating demands; ECB expects political sign to refinance the Greek banks
July 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Greek indecisiveness and procrastination and the deep division of the euro area countries, with Germany upholding an intransigent position have led to the humiliation of Athens, during the Saturday and Sunday late night meetings of the Eurogroup (the council of the 19 ministers of Eurozone) and the Eurosummit (the 19 heads of Eurozone state […]Greece will probably stay in the Eurozone but at what cost?
July 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The technical teams of the European institutions are now discussing the Greek proposal which was approved yesterday evening by SYRIZA’s governmental council and submitted to the institutions minutes before the deadline in order to have a final agreement at tomorrow’s Eurogroup. The fact that the Greek government has come up with a more professional and […]Greece: Tsipras’ referendum victory does not solve the financial stalemate of the country and its banks
July 6, 2015 by 1 Comment
The imperative economic realities for the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will not be altered noticeably after his crushing win in yesterday’s referendum. His ‘no’ (OXI in Greek) option marked an overwhelming victory meaning that the Greeks rejected the latest offer from the country’s creditors. To be reminded, during the past five months the Greek […]Hardened creditors drive Greece to dire straits; Tsipras desperate for an agreement
July 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, his government and their depressed country are now in real dire straits. This is a much worse position than in any time during the last five years, a period in which Greece repeatedly faced total collapse and was rescued by a troika of creditors (the European Union, the European […]The time is up but the game is still not over for Greece: negotiations continue in anticipation of a new deal
July 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The deadline of the 4-month extension that the Greek government had received on February 20 just expired today. However, the Greek government and particularly the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on a last moment decision to return to the negotiating table sent a letter to the institutions only hours before the expiration of the bailout programme. […]A Monday to watch the final act of a Greek tragedy; will there be catharsis or more fear?
June 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Today’s Eurogroup summit of the 19 euro area heads of state and government is convened by Donald Tusk, the President of European Council in order to bluntly present Alexis Tsipras, the Greek PM with a final ultimatum; ‘comply or leave the Eurozone’. Of course this initiative was not Tusk’s, given that his mandate is rather […]European Court rules that ECB’s OMT program of 2012 is OK; not a word from Germany about returning the Greek 2010 courtesy
June 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last Tuesday 16 June the European Court of Justice issued a historic decision ruling that Mario Draghi was legally correct when on 26 July 2012 speaking at the Global Investment Conference in London said the famous phrase, “…the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will […]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 […]The ECB tells Berlin that a Germanic Eurozone is unacceptable and doesn’t work
May 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last week Eurostat, the EU statistical service, confirmed that Eurozone inflation was stuck at zero percent in April, remaining in the region of deflation. No need to mention what a too low or zero or negative inflation means for a stagnating or even receding economy. Add to that the perilous position of Greece in and […]Spanish and Polish voters are crying out for an imminent European change while US urge now Germany to change route
May 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The election outcomes in Spain and Poland last week were enough to cause even more uncertainty and turbulences to the already shaken European economy. The European leaders and especially Germany is facing another thorn while they struggle to come to a deal with Greece, which focuses on the austerity policy that is constantly followed by the […]Big world banks to pay $ 4.95bn for cheating customers; Is it a punishment or a gentle caress?
May 25, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last week five of the world largest banks, JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and Union de Banques Suisses were fined by the American magistrates a total of $ 4.7 billion for rigging interest rate benchmarks. The banks had been setting those standards by themselves for five years after 2007. In another case the […]Alexis Tsipras against internal and external “enemies” in pursue of a two-phase deal now
May 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Greek government and particularly the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is currently looking at a deal with the creditors but is facing both interior and exterior “enemies”. Mr Tsipras had extensive talks yesterday in Athens with the government’s officials in order to inform them about the negotiations’ progress. The Finance Minister of Greece – “pop star”, […]
