France to get an ECB board slot as Smaghi resigns November 10, 2011 LORENZO Bini Smaghi, the Italian member of the European Central Bank’s executive board, yesterday said he would resign before the end of his current term to take up a job in the US. Smaghi, who has an economics doctorate from the University of Chicago, ends his term at the ECB on 31 May 2013 but [...]
Merkel vows to keep Eurozone intact November 10, 2011 German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected the idea that her government might favour a smaller Eurozone, saying her only goal since the beginning of the debt crisis has been to stabilise the bloc in its current form. On Wednesday reports suggested that some French and German officials were thinking about proceeding with closer economic integration [...]
Life after the Eurozone planned for peripheral states facing possible exit November 9, 2011 GERMAN and French officials have discussed the formation of a more tightly integrated core Eurozone, while separate reports from Germany reveal that Angela Merkel’s party is investigating ways of some countries leaving the single currency while staying in the European Union. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union will publish a paper today on how Eurozone members might [...]
France announces fresh measures for austerity November 7, 2011 FRANCE announced €65bn of tax hikes and budget cuts over five years yesterday, as President Nicolas Sarkozy seeks to protect the country’s creditworthiness in financial markets without killing his chances of re-election in six months time. Minister’s salaries, including Sarkozy’s, will be frozen as part of the plan, as the government aims to make the [...]
France speeds up older retirement November 6, 2011 A new wave of 2012 budget saving measures designed to help France meet its deficit reduction targets will include speeding up its higher retirement age. Last week, France lowered its growth projections for next year to one per cent from 1.7 per cent – raising the need for further belt-tightening measures by the centre-right government [...]
Markets suffer as G20 disappoints November 4, 2011 World stock markets suffered today as the Cannes meetings of the world’s top 20 economies reached no new agreement on how to solve the crisis engulfing Europe. Investors sought out safe-haven assets such as UK and US government debt and sold equities and the euro after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said few countries in the [...]
Eurozone’s growing crisis threatens to derail UK’s coalition November 4, 2011 WHAT a tale of incompetence, mad chutzpah, bullying and stupidity. The tragi-comedy that is the Eurozone’s crisis, and especially the farcical going-ons in Greece, ought at some point to be turned into a Hollywood movie. All the ingredients are present for a blockbuster, from cartoonish figures such as Nicolas Sarkozy or Silvio Berlusconi to the [...]
U-turn: Greeks axe referendum November 3, 2011 THE GREEK government is teetering on the brink of collapse after a day of infighting left Prime Minister George Papandreou, without a political majority, taking a referendum on Athens’ bailout package off the table. Political skirmishes also spread to the world stage as leaders at the G20 summit in Cannes considered whether to double the [...]
Planning for Greek euro exit kicks off November 3, 2011 THE PROSPECT of a Greek exit from the euro moved from the realm of theory into practice yesterday as G20 leaders began to examine how it could be achieved if Athens refuses to implement its austerity package. The shift follows a change in rhetoric from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on [...]
Eurozone’s growing crisis threatens to derail UK’s coalition November 3, 2011 WHAT a tale of incompetence, mad chutzpah, bullying and stupidity. The tragi-comedy that is the Eurozone’s crisis, and especially the farcical going-ons in Greece, ought at some point to be turned into a Hollywood movie. All the ingredients are present for a blockbuster, from cartoonish figures such as Nicolas Sarkozy or Silvio Berlusconi to the [...]