Tag Archives: EU

In the video below on RT.[embedded content]

As should other countries: it’s plain common sense.The EU and Eurozone are catastrophic. Of course, sanity prevailed and the UK never joined the Eurozone, but the EU itself is still catastrophic.Britain should leave the EU as quickly as possible, for the following reasons: (1) to protect the UK’s economic and political sovereignty;(2) to protect its democracy;(3) to protect its welfare state and social services;(4) to have some hope for a Post Keynesian-style or MMT-style economic policy in...

President Juncker's European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) has produced an update on its progress to date. The update is a lovely piece of work, with elegant graphics and breakdowns of projects and investments by country and by sector. Really impressive. Kudos to the content management team.But the content - oh dear, the content. The triumph of image over substance. From the EU-wide State of Play document, here is the total amount invested so far - projects and SME financing - and the...

It looks more and more like it.Why? Because Merkel’s irresponsible decision to throw Germany’s borders open to 1.1 million migrants has killed it.There is some interesting analysis here and here, which, despite the brave face put on Wolfgang Schäuble’s remarks in Brussels, reveals a deep, new crisis hitting the EU.Last year the major threat to the EU was the surge of democracy in Greece against austerity, but in the end the EU – and above all Germany – smashed any hope of that and the Greek...

This just keeps going up, which fundamentally tends to drive up the euro which tends to continue to be subject to said upward pressure until the trade picture reverses: Euro Area Balance of TradeThe Eurozone trade surplus increased to €23.6 billion in November of 2015 compared to a €20.2 billion surplus a year earlier. Exports recorded the highest annual gain in four months and imports rebounded. Potential showdown that could drive up Spanish rates: Guindos Ditches Pledge on Spain...

On October 30th 2015, I gave a keynote speech at Birmingham University's Finance Forum on the implications of Grexit and Brexit for financial stability. I've now written this up as a paper.I start by outlining the purpose of financial stability. Since the 2007-8 financial crisis, “financial stability” has been all the rage. We must prevent another crisis: we must solve the problems that make our financial system “unstable”.  But what exactly do we mean by “financial stability”? Most people...

At the Bank of England's Open Forum in London's Guildhall on Wednesday 11th November, an increasingly desperate-sounding Mario Draghi said this: As the majority of money is issued by private banks - bank deposits - there can only be a single currency if there is a single banking system. For money to be truly one, it has to be truly fungible, independent of its form and independent of its function. This is far from being the first time that Signor Draghi has pushed the case for common...

My Forbes post on the threat to democracy in the EU touched a nerve. Well, several nerves, actually. Some people regarded my invocation of the Prague Spring as insulting to the people who suffered under Soviet oppression: others objected to my comparison of the benevolent EU with the evil USSR: and a few complained that I had presented the Syriza government as "martyrs", when they are nothing of the kind. And lots of Portuguese called me out for misrepresenting how their parliamentary...

They say its the strong $ that’s hurting exports. I say it’s the drop in oil related capex after the price collapse: This is what news headlines have been looking like (not good): From Rüdiger (top German Specialist) research: German new business orders for August were broadly lower. Compared to July, which was revised downward, they fell a seasonally adjusted 2.1pc. Compared to August 2014 orders rose 3.4pc. However, there are two critical factors behind this figure....

And particularly in Europe, as this chart shows: The ratings agency Standard & Poors has called for governments everywhere to increase investment spending. It also says they need to improve the efficiency of the spending they are already doing.  Private sector investment spending all over the world fell after the 2008 financial crisis. In Europe, where the crisis started earlier, it started falling in 2007. And it has not recovered. Private sector investors remain risk-averse and...