The center right and center left German mainstream political parties agreed yesterday evening to form a new grand coalition government. It will be the third time since 2005 the two Christian parties and the socialists jointly govern their country. The socialists will control the Finance, Foreign and Labor ministries, with Martin Schulz, the Social Democratic […]Germany may have a stable and more cooperative government
February 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The center right and center left German mainstream political parties agreed yesterday evening to form a new grand coalition government. It will be the third time since 2005 the two Christian parties and the socialists jointly govern their country. The socialists will control the Finance, Foreign and Labor ministries, with Martin Schulz, the Social Democratic […]‘Safe Eurobonds’: a new trick to betray the south euro area countries
February 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment
All along the years after the 2008-2010 financial crisis, which in the European Union took the form banking/government debt breakdowns starting with Greece, there were cries for the creation of a solid Eurozone. In every respect, these calls amounted to demands that super prosperous Germany accepts some degree of risk-sharing with the rest of the […]Will the end of QE come along with ECB’s inflation target?
January 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The European Central Bank (ECB) will end its Quantitative Easing (QE) programme within the year as the Eurozone continues growing. However, the inflation rate which is not increasing as much as the ECB officials would like, stands as a barrier to its monetary policy. According to Reuters, sources close to the ECB mentioned that the […]Minority governments ‘à la mode’ in Europe but can they last long?
January 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment
With the Italian elections set for 4 March and anticipated to produce a hang parliament, four out of the five bigger European countries will be in political limbo for a good part, if not for the entire new year 2018. France is the only exception in this Euro-plague of political uncertainty. In some cases the […]Draghi keeps the euro cheap, helps debt refinancing, recapitalization of banks and growth
December 18, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday, the European Central Bank decided to keep flooding the Eurozone with hundreds of billions, despite strong objections coming from the frugal German-Dutch duo. Mario Draghi was adamant about that. It’s interesting to follow his response to a journalist’s remark, who reminded him that the “Dutch Central Bank President Klaas Knot said in a […]Brexit: UK business fear of a no-deal scenario preparing for the worst
November 8, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The Confederation of British Industry annual conference which took place last Monday in London was a chance for Prime Minister Theresa May to ask for more patience from the business world. Something though that seems to have been lost as negotiations show no significant progress and time presses both sides. A survey by the Chartered […]Extra mild ECB tapering of QE and zero interest rates keep euro low
October 30, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday, Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank performed again his superb balancing act, between the needs of the South and the demands of the North. He led the Governing Council of ECB, Eurozone’s most powerful body, to map the exit road from the extraordinary monetary measures (Quantitative Easing) state as frictionlessly […]Draghi’s 2018 compromise: enough money printing to revive inflation and check euro ascent
September 11, 2017 by 3 Comments
Last Thursday Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, reassured the Eurozone banking conglomerates they will continue being blessed with zero cost money, well into the foreseeable future. He stated, “one thing is clear; the bottom line is that interest rates will stay, as it’s written here, at the present levels (zero for […]Is euro to repeat its past highs with the dollar?
September 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The strengthening of the euro vis-à-vis the US dollar is taking alarming proportions, puzzling markets and the European Central Bank. The Eurozone single currency has gained 14% from the beginning of the year, with the tempo of appreciation accelerating. It gained around 10% during the summer. For around three years, the ECB has been following […]Berlin vies for a Germanic European Central Bank
August 3, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last week, the deep German state struck again targeting the heart of Eurozone. The hit was effectuated by Sabine Lautenschläger, a middle aged Stuttgart born ex BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) employee and presently member of the powerful executive board of the European Central Bank. Sabine now wants the ECB to abandon its extraordinary monetary […]The ECB accuses the politicians of inaction, continues injecting billions to banks
July 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Saturday 8 July the Belgian newspaper De Standaard published an interview with Peter Praet, Member of the Executive Board and chief economist of the European Central Bank. Praet said it plainly “We do say that we still need a long period of accommodative policy before we are ready”. What he means by ‘being ready’ […]Germany caught with selfish double standards in euro area policy
June 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Over the past three years the European Central Bank, guided by its President Mario Draghi, has been folowing a super relaxed monetary policy. It has been aiming at reviving uncertain economic growth and dying inflation, by handing out to banks, and through them to the economy, hundreds of billions of euro and at the same […]The ECB again takes care of the bankers not the people
May 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last week the European Central Bank surprised everybody by letting it be known that interest rates will “remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases”. To be noted, presently, the main refinancing operations interest rate is zero. Of course, the markets […]Trump to subject the Fed, challenge the ECB and make Wall St. bankers even richer
April 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment
It’s obvious by now that the European Central Bank and its President Mario Draghi are following a diametrically opposite monetary policy than the American central bank, the famous FeD. Both Draghi and ECB Vice President Vítor Constâncio have loudly reassured everybody that the Eurozone’s central bank will continue injecting €60 to €80 billion a month […]The four top Americans who flew to Europe perplexed things about Trump’s intentions
February 20, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Four top ranking Washington bigwigs – who flew to Munich, Brussels and Bonn to mend fences with Europe, after Donald Trump termed NATO ‘obsolete’ and rejoiced the unraveling of the EU, left the Europeans bewildered with the dangerously diverging stories they had to narrate. Only the extreme right wing, Polish Defense Minister Anton Macierewicz seemed […]Europe led by Germany seems vulnerable to Trump’s threats
February 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Trump’s America and Europe are obviously at odds. The question is how far this division will go? Unquestionably, it’s the new tenant of the White House who fuels this unseen before confrontation between the Atlantic allies, attached by a time cherished bonding that has politically and economically shaped the world as we know it so […]Draghi repels Trump’s threats, rejects Schauble’s dictums
January 23, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, is under mounting pressures both at home and abroad. From the other side of the Atlantic US President Donald Trump is overtly targeting a much cheaper dollar compared to euro, while at his inaugural speech he clearly praised trade protectionism by saying, “Protection will lead to […]Deutsche Bank chased away from US, threatened with more fines
December 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The US Department of Justice settled its claims against Deutsche Bank, the biggest German lender, for packaging and selling toxic mortgage securities to uninformed customers prior to the 2008-2010 financial crisis. Initially, the Justice Department had asked for $14 billion, but it seems it settled for a fine of $7.2bn. However, this is not the […]ECB: The bastion of effective and equitable Europeanism keeps up quantitative easing
December 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday, 12 December, Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, was forced to compromise with the Germans during the Governing Council’s regular meeting. He accepted to reduce the monthly injections of cash into the economy (through asset purchases of mainly government bonds) from €80 billion to €60bn, along the lines of the nonstandard […]After the Italian ‘no’ and the Brexit, Germans must decide which Europe they want
December 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
There is no doubt that Europe is in disarray. The long standing malaise of high unemployment and economic stagnation has already mutated into critical political problems. The mutations of the European political ecosystem take various, unseen before forms. In the northern EU countries they invariably appear as extreme right or even semi-fascist political parties, inflated […]Can the EU afford to block China’s business openings to Europe by denying her the ‘market economy status’?
October 31, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The way Wallonia, Belgium’s French speaking region approved CETA – the comprehensive economic and trade agreement between the EU and Canada – is a rather dark landmark. In the future, Europe’s trade and otherwise relations with foreign countries will be rather shaky. This was also true in the past, but now became evident for everybody […]IMF – World Bank meetings: US – Germany clash instituted, anti-globalization prospects visualized
October 10, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This year’s annual meetings of the IMF – World Bank Group in Washington D.C., which kicked off on Thursday 6 October, turned out to be an all out financial war of words between the United States and Germany. In the middle of it stands the battered Deutsche Bank. For a start, there was a confrontation […]Trailing the US-EU economic confrontation
October 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment
More than one economic pundit felt relieved learning that Eurostat, the EU statistical service last Friday estimated the September CPI inflation in Eurozone at 0.4%, the highest level in two years. Understandably, they think that the stagnating and almost deflationary euro area is leaving behind its grim past, aided by ECB’s liquidity injections of €80 […]The Americans are preparing for the next financial crisis
October 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last week, Janet Yellen, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in more than one ways revealed that the American central bank prepares to confront the next financial downturn. On Wednesday, 28 September, speaking at the House Financial Services Committee in Washington D.C. , she defended the Fed’s rigorous supervision over […]Mario Draghi didn’t do it but Kim Jong-un did
September 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday, Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, was unable to move the capital and money markets with his customary monetary policy Press conference in Frankfurt am Main. On the contrary, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, a global castoff, did it the next day just by pressing a button. However, it took […]Merkel refuses to consider the North-South schism of Eurozone
August 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The European leaders who form the EU ‘directoire’ may get together as many times as they like, but still appear incapable of solving the club’s existential problems. Last Monday the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French President Francois Hollande and the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi met in Naples to relaunch Europe, after the Brexit. […]Gloomy new statistics signify no end to Eurozone’s economic misery
August 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The economic misery of the Eurozone doesn’t seem to have an end. According to a preliminary estimate by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical service, GDP growth in the 19 member state monetary zone during the second quarter of this year was as miser as ever. On top of that, inflation continues to oscillate around zero, while […]No end to Deutsche Bank’s problems: new litigations in the US and frailty in EU stress test
August 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Wednesday, Deutsche Bank’s shares fell by 4.5% in the first hour of trading in Frankfurt, after the bank released its second quarter results, showing a measly profit of €20 million, in comparison to €818 million last year. The percentage fall of this stock is the biggest ever in such a brief time in the […]Brexit casts a shadow over the LSE – Deutsche Börse merger: a tracer of how or if brexit is to be implemented
July 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment
One of the most direct and important consequences of the Brexit vote is the uncertainty it casts on the merger of Europe’s largest stock exchanges and clearing houses, the London Stock Exchange and the German bourse in Frankfurt, the Deutsche Börse. The two mammoth institutions, the double sun of Europe’s financial universe, last March agreed […]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 […]A Sting Exclusive: “Doing ourselves a favour”, Vice President Dombrovskis underscores that this time growth has to come from within the EU
June 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This article was exclusively written for the European Sting by Mr Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Euro and Social Dialogue. Last month, the European Commission presented the spring economic package related to the European Semester. It included the annual country-specific policy recommendations to individual member states and the Commission’s latest assessment […]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 […]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 […]
