The comparison of repercussions from the Greek ‘yes’ and the Cyprus ‘no’, to the troika of EU-ECB-IMF proposals, concerning the bailouts of the corresponding economies, may produce political and financial implications for many Eurozone governments, the EU Commission and the International Monetary Fund. The Greek ‘yes’ is presenting very difficult problems in the longer […]Eurozone in trouble after Nicosia’s ‘no’
March 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The comparison of repercussions from the Greek ‘yes’ and the Cyprus ‘no’, to the troika of EU-ECB-IMF proposals, concerning the bailouts of the corresponding economies, may produce political and financial implications for many Eurozone governments, the EU Commission and the International Monetary Fund. The Greek ‘yes’ is presenting very difficult problems in the longer […]Cyprus Parliament says no to blackmail
March 20, 2013 by 1 Comment
Not one Cypriot Parliamentarian voted yes for the draft bill proposal, providing for a haircut on all deposits in Cypriot banks. As a result the island’s financial system will remain shut down until Thursday, in the hope that a solution to the stalemate will be found. It was quite a spectacle to see all the […]South Eurozone needs some…inflation and liquidity
March 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As it was expected, Eurostat proved to be right in its last week’s estimate that February yearly inflation was less than 2% on the average in the 17 member states Eurozone. As a matter of fact yesterday’s announcement of the EU’s statistical service revealed that February inflation was 1.8%. Inflation rates diverged wildly between the […]Is ECB helping Germany to buy cheaply the rest of Europe?
March 5, 2013 by 1 Comment
Next Thursday 7 February the Governing Council of the European Central Bank will gather in Frankfurt in its regular monthly meeting, to discuss monetary policies and take the relevant decisions. Presumably there will be no change of ECB’s main interest rate, which is pegged at 0.75% as from 11 July 2012. Nor any other major […]An ECB banker wants to change the European social model
March 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
A banker, member of the European Central Bank’s executive board, in the brief time of half an hour, during which he delivered a speech on Saturday 2 March, in the context of the European Conference at Harvard, wanted not only to ‘correct’ the Europe’s social contract but also to demolish John Maynard Keynes’s contribution to […]Let the Italians have it their way, it may be good for all Eurozone
February 27, 2013 by 1 Comment
The large size of the Italian sovereign debt, in the region of €2 trillion and its refinancing torments now the minds of all Eurozone political leaders. The same is true for capital market investors, who showed a remarkable cold-blooded attitude yesterday, after it was certain that no single political party can formulate a viable government […]Draghi sees inflationary bubbles
February 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The governor of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, speaking yesterday in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, in an unexpectedly strong statement said that the euro area is still open to “potential inflationary bubbles”. He then added that “the possible effects of Euro exchange rates on inflation must be monitored […]Commission goes less than mid-way on expensive euro
February 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Olli Rehn, the EU Commissioner for the Economy took the floor yesterday, over the euro exchange rate market developments. As he usually does, Rehn wanted on this issue too, to be seen as going mid-way between Berlin and Paris. The question to be answered is of course, if the euro is expensive or not? However […]What our leaders hide from us
February 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Europe had a very interesting day yesterday. Let’s see why. First was the British PM who delayed the EU Summit for five hours, then an agreement was announced to reduce the Irish sovereign debt by €20 billion and finally it was Mario Draghi, who helped contain the hike of the euro vis-à-vis the dollar, just […]More bank bailouts at taxpayers’ expenses
February 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday the European Sting wrote that the Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the European Central Bank was asking for more taxpayers’ money to support careless “systemic” banks in case they fail. Possibly he could have longed to deny this “accusation”. To this effect he will get the floor here below to defend himself. In a speech […]EU Parliament semi worried over democratic deficit
January 31, 2013 by 1 Comment
Yesterday at the European Parliament in Brussels, during the closing session of the Parliamentary week devoted to the European Semester (EU economic governance – fiscal treaty), a joint group of EU parliamentarians and members of national parliaments concluded, that the under construction closer economic and monetary union calls for more democratic control. The MEPs and […]Banks suffocate the real economy by denying loans
January 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday the European Central Bank released data on Eurozone bank deposits and loans for December 2012. According to this report deposits by households and the non financial business sector increased during 2012 by at least 4%, while the loans to private sector (non-financial businesses and households) continued to decrease. The diverging direction of increasing […]Everybody against Japan over yen’s devaluation
January 28, 2013 by 2 Comments
Yesterday, Jörg Asmussen, Member of the ECB’s Executive Board speaking in an interview to a Greek newspaper said, that the issue of the Japanese yen devaluation should be referred to the G7 and the G20 councils. He added that if each-one goes for himself with national currency competitive devaluations, the outcome will be catastrophic for […]Inflation not a problem for Europe
January 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The downward trend of Eurozone inflation was confirmed yesterday by Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union. According to this source “Euro area annual inflation was 2.2% in December 2012, the same as in November. A year earlier the rate was 2.7%. The EU27 annual inflation was 2.3% in December 2012, down from 2.4% […]The new European Union of banks is ready
January 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission, speaking in a farewell ceremony to honour the Cypriot Presidency of the European Union during the second half of 2012, made clear that the Commission has made the creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) for the EU banks as its utmost priority and will […]ECB to support only banks not Peoples
January 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In two different articles the European Sting yesterday made important references and observations on the policy lines followed by the European Central bank. ECB’s double standards Maria Milouv in her article entitled, “European financial values on the rise”, commented as follows: “With the prospect of a further reduction of ECB’s interest rates appearing now more distant […]European financial values on the rise
January 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
No doubt the screams, mainly coming from English language media, economists and commentators about the possible dissolution of Eurozone have now subsided and only some late comers in the league of those who have bet on Eurozone’s destruction still try to salvage their wrecks, by predicting catastrophe. On the other side of the fence those […]Draghi hands over to banks €77.7 billion more
January 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
The European Central Bank lent but in reality handed over yesterday 9 January a total amount of €77.7 billion to a number of Eurozone banks, under an arrangement called Main Refinancing Operation (MRO) at the negligible interest rate of 0.7% for a duration of 7 days. This is however the upper side of the iceberg. It’s […]Eurozone business activity again on upwards path
January 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Business activity in Eurozone has being deteriorating for the past nine months. Last December however the PMI, index which measures this phenomenon, gave the first indications that the bottom of the dreadful U curve is now behind. In detail, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the industrial sector, being drafted on data over the demand […]A new European banking space is born this year
January 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The year 2013 can be termed as the European banking year, after the last EU Summit of heads of governments and states decided on 13 December to create a unified bank supervision and auditing space, under the European Central Bank in 24 out of the 27 countries, at the exemption of Britain, Sweden and the […]Eurozone 2013: Where to?
December 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In 2012, Eurozone not only managed to effectively counter its double-faced, credit and sovereign debt crisis, but also convinced the global financial community, that the single European currency is probably the safest deposit of value. The world responded positively by voting the euro at the region of 132 American cents. A fair price, to keep […]How many more financial crises in the West can the world stand?
November 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“After five years of crisis the world economy is weakening again”, states bluntly the very first phrase of the editorial of OECD’s latest economic report, published on 28 November. Actually it couldn’t be differently, because the US economy doesn’t seem to respond well to therapy and Europe is in a much worse state. But let’s […]Lagarde’s metamorphoses, not a laughing matter
November 16, 2012 by 2 Comments
International politico-economic relations is a tricky field, with the major players constantly changing stance, according to their short term interests, putting aside whatever honourable principles are left in their decision making procedures. And all that being discussed and decided upon, by a handful of people behind closed doors. If those people were not playing with […]On the euro but out of it?
November 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The fact that Greece reached the exit of Eurozone more than once during the past months and a Grexit (exit of Greece from Eurozone) is still not excluded did not stop the European Central Bank from keeping the country on the euro. This time however for decorative reasons. The ECB used the most ancient depiction […]Long live Eurozone’s bank supervisor down with the EU budget supremo
November 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
EU leaders in their last summit of mid-October appeared ready to make another systemic blunder. After creating a limping Eurozone, with a common currency but not common rules for sovereign debt issues, now they discuss the institutionalisation of a common EU budget and a Brussels “supremo of Finance”. And all that with no political legitimacy. […]European Union: From financial consolidation to deeper political division
October 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In June 2012 the 17 Euro-area leaders who made a giant step forward towards a closer Eurozone union, when back home, those on the giving side, namely Angela Merkel, pretended that nothing has changed, while the ‘winners’ made it look like a gift, which it was not. As for the 10 heads of states and […]
