On June 28, 2015, the oldest international financial institution, the Basel-based eighty-five-year-old Bank for International Settlements, asked in its annual report a most pertinent question: “Is the unthinkable becoming routine?” The report pointed out that low interest rates “are the most remarkable symptom of a broader malaise in the global economy: the economic expansion … [Read more...] about The Unthinkable as the New Normal
Financial Diplomacy
Draghi´s German Nightmare
Berlin – Just in time for the May European elections euro area leaders reached a compromise on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) and the Single Resolution Fund (SRF), the second pillar of the European banking union project. As the ECB assumed the key role in defusing the eurozone sovereign debt and banking crisis with the levers of … [Read more...] about Draghi´s German Nightmare
Draghi dreams about monetary policy always within the (ECB) mandate. Whether he dreams in Italian or German, he can´t say.
When Draghi was asked at an exclusive session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) by Philip Hildebrand, the former governor of the Swiss Central Bank and since October 2012 the Vice Chairman of Blackrock, whether he "dreams of monetary policy in Italian or German”, his nightmares with the “pervasive German angst” suddenly entered the Davos … [Read more...] about Draghi dreams about monetary policy always within the (ECB) mandate. Whether he dreams in Italian or German, he can´t say.
European Parliament is wrong blocking Single Resolution Mechanism/ Single Resolution Fund`s inter-governmental part
Our readers will find several earlier postings on this website explaining that Berlin was dead set against using Art 114 TFEU as legal basis for a Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) connected to the needed backstop of a Single Resolution Fund (SRF). Therefore, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and German chancellor, Angela Merkel, only accepted a compromise on the … [Read more...] about European Parliament is wrong blocking Single Resolution Mechanism/ Single Resolution Fund`s inter-governmental part
More Snowden revelations on spying out the Eurozone?
Last year, when I was preparing another analysis on the eurozone´s Herculean task of implementing European banking union, also my friends at the Washington-based “The International Economy” were shocked by the spy scandal humiliating German chancellor Angela Merkel and showing Europe´s – and particularly Germany´s – mindboggling vulnerabilities. The International … [Read more...] about More Snowden revelations on spying out the Eurozone?