By Paolo von Schirach May 15, 2012 WASHINGTON – If you leave out Germany and the northern countries, Europe does not grow and belonging to the Eurozone right now does not help growth for those southern members (Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal) that are doing so poorly. Being in the Euro they cannot devalue, while [...]
By Paolo von Schirach May 12, 2012 WASHINGTON - A Fox TV interview by John Stossel with Luis Fortuno, the Governor of Puerto Rico, made me curious to learn more. This boysh (just 51 years old, and looking more like 31) Republican has had the courage to meet head on the challenge of a gigantic state debt [...]
By Paolo von Schirach May 8, 2012 WASHINGTON – Just a few weeks ago Agustin Carstens, the Governor of the bank of Mexico, argued in a Washington public forum that the European debt crisis will not be over until the Europeans will be able to convince markets that all is well and that there is absolutely no [...]
By Paolo von Schirach May 7, 2012 WASHINGTON – Watching on C-SPAN, (the meritorious public affairs TV channels), a session of the US House Budget Committee was quite depressing. There was no real debate on the issues aimed at getting to some constructive policy outcome. I heard only prepackaged slogans and a lot of predictable posturing.
By Paolo von Schirach May 1, 2012 WASHINGTON - In the never ending Greek fiscal debacle saga, everybody’s focus has been on the unfolding drama. Will this Eurozone-IMF rescue package work? Or will it be the next one, until finally something that would stick is cobbled together? But, while not unreasonable, this focus on crisis management and related countermeasures took all [...]
By Paolo von Schirach April 30, 2012 WASHINGTON – The Europeans are (rightfully) clamoring against an EU mandated “austerity only therapy” aimed at bringing several fiscally damaged countries back to financial health. Indeed, as it has been pointed out by many economists, (Nouriel Roubini, among others), austerity alone causes already weak economies to contract. When governments cut spending, the fiscal [...]
By Paolo von Schirach April 19, 2012 WASHINGTON – The very fact that there is talk about a possible EU bail out for Spain, justified or not, indicates how fragile the European fiscal/debt situation still is. Just weeks ago we were told that everything was under control. Greece had been stabilized. Italy under Prime Minister [...]
By Paolo von Schirach April 11, 2012 WASHINGTON – Until almost yesterday it seemed that the EU countries, Merkel’s Germany and Sarkozy’s France in the lead, had finally put the whole European debt crisis to rest. They had found a formula for rescuing Greece, the real, (but relatively small), basket case and they had managed to put all the [...]
By Paolo von Schirach April 10, 2012 WASHINGTON – By dropping out of the Republican Party nomination process, Rick Santorum did the only sensible thing he has done in a campaign founded mostly on preposterous, sentimental and hopelessly archaic themes. The scary part is not that another out of step with the modern world politician wanted to run on family [...]
By Paolo von Schirach April 9, 2012 WASHINGTON – Professor Walter Russell Mead believes that all this talk about “American decline” is incorrect. (The Myth of America’s Decline, The Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2012). The real issue –he claims– is the decline of the Trilateral System, ( the US, Europe and Japan), that shaped the [...]