Last Wednesday the European Sting took an interview in Brussels from an expert on the South China Sea. Our interviewee this time was Mrs Yan Yan, Deputy Director of the Research Center of Oceans Law and Policy in the National Institute for the South China Sea Studies (NISCSS) and a PhD candidate in the University of Hong Kong on public international law. The stimulating interview is presented below. The Sting’s questions are […]An expert in the South China Sea issue on an exclusive interview at the European Sting
June 17, 2016 by 3 Comments
Last Wednesday the European Sting took an interview in Brussels from an expert on the South China Sea. Our interviewee this time was Mrs Yan Yan, Deputy Director of the Research Center of Oceans Law and Policy in the National Institute for the South China Sea Studies (NISCSS) and a PhD candidate in the University of Hong Kong on public international law. The stimulating interview is presented below. The Sting’s questions are […]Does the world have strong enough institutions to handle risks like Trump and Brexit?
June 16, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last December, after the attack in San Bernardino California that left 14 dead, Donald Trump proposed a “temporary ban on Muslims entering the US”. This statement gave him a clear lead in the race for the Republican Party nomination, amongst the twelve candidates for the 8 November Presidential election. Republican voters seemingly appreciated his strong […]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, […]To Brexit or not to Brexit: British exceptionalism doesn’t allow any Obama telling Brits what to do
April 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Barack Obama visited the UK last week clearly in an attempt to boost the “Remain” campaign urging Britain to stay within the EU. This move has not yet been exactly measured as beneficial or not for David Cameron’s campaign but has certainly caused several reactions to the British voters about two months before the referendum. The […]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 […]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 […]Will the European Court of Justice change data privacy laws to tackle terrorism?
March 30, 2016 by 1 Comment
The next European Court of Justice (ECJ) meeting will take place on April 12 regarding the breaching of human rights by the massive interception of communication data. This hearing is very crucial as it is probable that the EU judges will decide to cut down on the power of UK surveillance laws since ECJ’s rulings are binding on UK courts […]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 […]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 […]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 […]Politics still matter in the US but not in Europe
February 4, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Iowa US presidential candidate nomination race results in both the Republican and the Democrat vote, proved that in the US politics still matter. The populist, unpredictable and apolitical billionaire Donald Trump was largely defeated by Ted Cruz, a super conservative Texas politician. On the other side Hillary Clinton the champion of the American business […]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 […]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. […]Erdogan’s electoral win on a ‘me or chaos’ dilemma means trouble for everybody
November 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The dilemma ‘me or chaos’ that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hurled at his compatriots in last Sunday’s election paid dividends. And this despite the fact that he did what he could to produce frightening samples of the kind of chaos he had in mind. Understandably, then the Turkish voters didn’t give a super-majority […]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 […]Europe slammed by Turkey’s shaky Erdoğan; both playing with immigrants’ agony
October 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Probably the greatest achievement of last Thursday’s European Council was that its conclusions were refuted within hours after they were published. While the official text of the Council results boasts about a “joint action plan with Turkey”, to stem the immigration flows to the EU, the Turkish minister of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioglu commented otherwise. […]The UN supports Europe’s military action in Libya and the Mediterranean; Russia and China agree
October 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday 9 October the UN Security Council and its five permanent members unanimously decided to actually trade entire nations and geographical regions between them. To this effect they authorized the European Union to employ warships in the Libyan waters to “board ships for inspection, seize and even dispose of vessels suspected of being used […]Refugee crisis update: Commission still in panic while Turkey is to be added in the equation
October 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
It was only last Wednesday that Russia officially launched airstrikes in Syria which are supposed to target terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS). The attacks however aim at western Syria where “strangely” IS has no activity. Consequently, while Russia is mitigating the war in Syria backing-up Assad and his government, refugees continue leaving massively the […]Germany loves a strong euro; the new Fiscal Councils can deliver despite the Greek chaos and a wider questioning of austerity
September 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last Saturday, 12 September, Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis made some remarks after the informal meeting of ECOFIN (the EU ministers of Finance Council) in Luxembourg. The main item on the agenda was about completing the European Monetary Union. EMU is the most important EU project after the introduction of the single euro currency. He […]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 […]Climate change will never be combatted by EU alone while some G20 countries keep procrastinating
August 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The EU Commissioner of Climate Action and Energy stressed out yesterday the sluggishness of the required actions that must be taken in order to combat climate change effects. Miguel Arias Cañete was critical to some G20 countries that have not yet provided their climate contributions and are not helping to create a constructive agreement. The Commission’s official made […]Why France, Italy and the US press Germany to accept a cheaper euro and pay for Greece
August 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Since last March the European Central Bank has being pumping at least €60 billion a month into Eurozone’s financial system, under its ‘expanded asset purchase program’, aimed at reviving the stagnating price level and energizing the sleepy real economy. The objective is to bring inflation close to 2%; the target rate set by ECB’s monetary […]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 […]What the world will look like after the Iran and 5+1 deal; the US emerges as major power broker in Middle East
July 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The first to travel to Tehran after the nuclear agreement was struck last week between Iran and the 5+1 (France, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States plus Germany) are the German Vice Chancellor Zigmar Gabriel and Laurent Fabius the French minister for Foreign Affairs. Understandably, French and German dignitaries are more welcomed […]Who is to lose from the 6-month extension of the EU economic sanctions against Russia?
June 24, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The European Foreign Ministers gathered in Luxembourg two days ago and decided to continue imposing economic sanctions to Russia for another six months. This shows the strong intention of Europe to weaken Russia’s power in Ukraine and thus put a stop on Russia’s imperialistic plans. However, Russia claims these sanctions as “illegal and unfounded” and will fight […]The West – the EU and the US – is writing off Turkey’s Erdogan
June 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment
For the first time in the history of the EU-Turkish relations the European Parliament openly and loudly welcomed last week the heavy losses of the governing party in a general election. The MEPs actually rejoiced on “the most inclusive and representative parliament in Turkish modern history, reflecting the country’s diversity”, forgetting that it’s a hang […]The G7 adopted dangerous views about Ukraine and Greece
June 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last weekend the leaders of the G7 countries in reality acknowledged their impotency or probably unwillingness to effectively confront the expansion of the destructive and unlawful activities of the “too big to fail” banks and the shadow banking sector. After that, they decided that Ukraine and Greece have to go on bleeding in order not […]The hostilities in south and eastern Ukraine resume; where could they lead?
June 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The resumption of hostilities in south-eastern Ukraine is blamed by the West to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow reportedly wants to help the pro-Russian separatists who prevail in the Luhansk and Donetsk region to gain control of Mariupol a key port in this area on the Black Sea. However, the heavy fighting that took […]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 […]EU to lead one more fight against climate change at G7 summit
June 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The UN talks that are being held in the context of a 10-day climate conference in Bonn are highly crucial for the preparation of the final agreement that must be signed at the climate summit in Paris in 6 months from now. Therefore, officials from 190 nations are gathered in the German city to discuss […]
