By Paolo von Schirach March 3, 2012 WASHINGTON – A European summit without the pressure of another imminent crisis. Now, this is news. The EU leaders just met and they congratulated one another for being there, alive and standing. Indeed, it seems that the liquidity/solvency crisis has been finally stabilized. After untold pain and various twists, [...]
By Paolo von Schirach January 15, 2012 WASHINGTON – A sad but powerful illustration of EU indecisiveness about dealing squarely with the whole sovereign debt mess is that more than two years after the explosion of the Greek crisis, most incredibly, the issue is still wide open. In fact it has gotten much worse. As The Financial Times put it [...]
By Paolo von Schirach November 20, 2011 WASHINGTON – In complicated European Union plus Eurozone Europe there are unfortunately two sets of problems that guarantee a prolonged debt crisis. The first set has to do with weak Southern economies, (Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal), in which the standard practice of the political leadership has been to buy popular approval [...]
By Paolo von Schirach November 9, 2011 WASHINGTON – Expect Italy’s turmoil to go on for a while longer. The supposedly good news of Prime Minister Berlusconi finally giving up and leaving office in the next few days apparently reassured nobody. In fact, investors demanded even higher interest rates, (crossing the critical 7% barrier), to [...]
By Paolo von Schirach November 8, 2011 WASHINGTON - Prime Minister George Papandreou is just about gone in Greece. And, on November 8, Silvio Berlusconi, his perennially embattled Italian counterpart, finally gave up, after having lost his majority in an important vote in Parliament. He will resign in a matter of days. Still, the not so graceful exit of these two leaders [...]
By Paolo von Schirach November 5, 2011 WASHINGTON – The French daily Le Figaro reports that, according to a poll published on the website Ouest France, 89% of French respondents declared that money lent to other EU countries in difficulty is “money lost“, because it will never be repaid. If this poll is accurate, it [...]
By Paolo von Schirach October 29, 2011 Related stories http://schirachreport.com/index.php/2011/10/25/will-european-debtfinancial-crisis-be-solved-yes-but-not-soon-eu-institutions-weak-hesitant-national-political-leaders-will-not-move-fast-enough/ http://schirachreport.com/index.php/2011/10/27/europeans-agreed-on-measures-to-end-debt-crisis-greek-debt-will-be-reduced-rescue-fund-to-be-augmented-eu-banks-to-increase-reserves-yet-serious-doubts-about-implementation-italys-ability-to/ WASHINGTON – In recent articles (see above) I pointed out that Europe, while moving forward in this never ending debt/financial crisis mess, cannot be trusted to take truly definitive steps. And most recent developments fit the pattern. Last Thursday there seemed to be a major breakthrough: Nicolas Sarkozy, [...]
By Paolo von Schirach October 27, 2011 WASHINGTON – The Europeans –at last– have put together the basic elements of a package aimed at restoring financial stability. Greek bond holders will take a major “hair cut” so that the level of the residual Athens’ debt will be reduced and become (hopefully) sustainable. The big European bail out fund, managed [...]
By Paolo von Schirach October 25, 2011 WASHINGTON – Every time there is a sign indicating a forthcoming deal that may stabilize the messy European sovereign debt/financial crisis, Wall Street goes up. The idea is that, if Europe finally gets it act together, then we are out of the woods and can relax a bit. Well [...]
By Paolo von Schirach October 12, 2011 WASHINGTON – Former Clinton era US Deputy Secretary Roger Altman makes a compelling case in a The Financial Times op-ed piece, (America’s blueprint for bailing out Europe’s banks. October 12, 2011), for the quick adoption by Europe of its own version of the TARP, (Troubled Asset Relief Program), the Washington engineered [...]