Just when Spain, and the euro zone, needed it least, along comes the Catalan secession drama to remind us exactly how many parties, peoples and factions have the potential to undermine the single currency’s salvation. Not that Catalonia is likely …
It may be better to think of the outbreak of negative interest rates as simply another weapon in an ongoing and global low-grade currency war. It’s not that negative interest rates – under which investors pay for the privilege of …
Greece averted the immediate risk of an uncontrolled default, winning strong acceptance from its private creditors for a bond swap deal which will ease its massive public debt and clear the way for a new international bailout. The finance ministry …
A disorderly Greek default would probably leave Italy and Spain needing outside help to stop contagion spreading and cause more than €1 trillion ($1.318 trillion) of damage to the euro zone, the group representing Athens’ bondholders warned. Greek private creditors …
Swiss Re presented its latest analysis of the global economic outlook and its potential impact on the insurance industry at an economic forum in London yesterday, December 1. Chief Economist Kurt Karl began the discussion with an admonition that the …
Can you unscramble an omelet? That, in essence, is what euro zone leaders and the global monetary policy elite will have to do if the euro zone is to be reshaped in any semblance of an orderly manner, be it …
According to the World Economic Survey (WES), published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Munich-based Institute for Economic Research (Ifo), “the world economic climate has worsened in the fourth quarter, as indicated by increasingly negative expectations from …
Prime Minister George Papandreou’s shock announcement that he will put Greece’s bailout to a referendum threatened to intensify the euro zone crisis, and brought complaints in Germany that Athens is trying to wriggle out of the deal. Euro zone leaders …
France and Germany unveiled far-reaching plans for closer euro zone integration on Tuesday, but they disappointed investors by declaring that any thoughts of a common euro bond issuance would have to wait. Under heavy pressure to restore confidence in the …
The leaders of France and Germany face a stark choice in talks on Tuesday over whether to begin steering the embattled euro zone towards closer fiscal union or risk watching the bloc unravel. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor …
