Wall Street Journal (January 26)
While the Greeks are likely to remain in the eurozone, “the Syriza victory is nonetheless a rebuke to European leaders. Greeks believe, not unreasonably, that the conditions imposed by the troika have been disastrous.” Rather than “promoting pro-growth reforms,” the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund imposed measures focused on “draconian fiscal tightening.” The result was predictable: “falling wages and pensions and rising taxes, with no growth in return for the pain.”
Tags: Draconian, ECB, European Commission, European leaders, eurozone, Fiscal tightening, Greek, Growth, IMF, Pensions, Reforms, Syriza, Taxes, Victory, Wages
Financial Times (January 23)
“It has taken far too long for the European Central Bank to embark on quantitative easing but its belated action is no less welcome.” ECB president Mario Draghi unveiled a massive program to purchase eurozone bonds through 2016 to help counter the threat of deflation. “There is no doubt that Mr Draghi needed to act. Growth and underlying inflation have been relentlessly weak, providing clear evidence that demand in the eurozone is faltering.”
Tags: Bonds, Deflation, ECB, eurozone, Growth, Inflation, Mario Draghi, Quantitative easing
Financial Times (January 9)
“Investors looking for haven assets are increasingly having to pay up for the safety they provide as the volume of negative-yielding eurozone government debt has swollen to a record €1.2tn.” The change to assets you effectively pay to hold is unprecedented. At €0 in June 2014, this negative-yielding debt now accounts for roughly one quarter of outstanding eurozone sovereign debt, mostly “concentrated among the short-dated debt of core eurozone countries.”
Tags: Assets, eurozone, Government debt, Haven, Investors, Negative-yielding, Safety
Financial Times (November 19)
“After three years of near stagnation and with unemployment stuck at double digit levels, it is increasingly clear that the eurozone’s political and economic crisis will intensify if there is no boost to growth.”
Tags: Crisis, Economic, eurozone, Growth, Political, Stagnation, Unemployment
Financial Times (September 16)
“Fears of disruption following a Scottish vote for independence and intensifying conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have damaged prospects for the world economy,” according to the latest assessment of the OECD, which lowered growth forecasts for 2014 to 2.1% in the U.S., 0.9% in Japan and 0.8% in the eurozone.
Tags: Conflict, Disruption, Economy, eurozone, Independence, Japan, Middle East, OECD, Scotland, U.S., Ukraine, Vote
Financial Times (April 8)
“Whatever the thundering herd of investors may think, it is too soon to declare that Mr Draghi has won the war for the euro. The eurozone still faces deep underlying economic and political problems that are beyond the control of the president of the ECB and his colleagues.”
Tags: Colleagues, Draghi, ECB, Economic, euro, eurozone, Herd, Investors, Political, President, Problems
Institutional Investor (December 17, 2013)
With the introduction of a new single supervisory mechanism, the European Central Bank (ECB) is positioned to play a integral role. “The coronation of the ECB as banking supervisor will make the central bank an even more powerful institution, along the lines of the Fed, which emerged from the crisis as the dominant U.S. financial regulator.”
Tags: Banking, Central bank, Crisis, ECB, eurozone, Fed, Financial regulator, Supervisory mechanism, U.S.
Financial Times (November 15, 2013)
“Disappointing growth figures in the eurozone and Japan driven by weak export numbers have dashed hopes that a global economic recovery would gather pace in the second half of the year.” Third-quarter eurozone growth fell 0.2% to 0.1% while Japan’s growth rate dropped to 1.9%.
Tags: eurozone, Exports, Global economic recovery, Growth, Japan
The Financial Times (October 19)
“The debt drama in Washington stirred a jumble of emotions in Europe. Cold fear that a US default could tip the world back into a slump jostled with schadenfreude as Europeans recalled the stern American lectures on their handling of the euro crisis. The eurozone may be dysfunctional, but so too is the US.”
Tags: Americans, Default, Dysfunctional, Emotions, Euro crisis, Europe, Europeans, eurozone, Schadenfreude, U.S., Washington
Financial Times (May 19, 2013)
“Europe’s recent lamentable growth numbers bring home the cost of poor policy. But after years of confusion, distraction and errors, eurozone leaders are focusing on the right task, as finance ministers did in their meeting last week: to build a banking union for the euro.”
Tags: Banking union, Errors, euro, Europe, eurozone, Finance ministers, Growth, Policy
