Financial Times (September 18)
“The EU’s 28 member states have long been famed for squabbling among themselves whenever the bloc comes face to face with an acute issue. Confronted by the current refugee crisis—the biggest of its kind in the continent’s recent history—Europe’s governments are responding true to form.”
Tags: Crisis, EU, Governments, Refugee, Squabbling
New York Times (July 14)
The EU’s tentative deal “may avert an immediate catastrophe, but there is little to celebrate since it will do little to address, much less repair, the slow-moving disaster of the Greek economy.” For that matter, “in forcing Greece to submit they have not resolved the crisis of the monetary union or advanced the European project.”
Tags: Catastrophe, Crisis, Deal, Disaster, Economy, EU, European project, Greece, Monetary union
Bloomberg (June 29)
“Three years after Mario Draghi pledged to do whatever it took to save the euro, the mounting crisis in Greece is calling into question the integrity of the entire currency union.” Although Greece is minor in terms of economic output, “its exit would hurl the bloc into unknown territory by setting a precedent for other nations to reconsider their membership.”
Tags: Crisis, Currency union, euro, Exit, Greece, Mario Draghi, Membership
Institutional Investor (April 20)
“Like an old couple that can’t seem to stop fighting, Greece and its European Union partners are wondering if it’s time to head for divorce court.” The long-running saga has “been threatening to undermine the single currency for more than five years. Yet the Greek crisis appears to be entering a new, and potentially fatal, phase as exhaustion and mutual recriminations push both sides to the brink of an irrevocable rupture.”
Bloomberg (December 29)
“The Greek parliament’s decision to trigger elections by rejecting Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s presidential candidate throws Europe back into turmoil. The European Union can avert a full-blown existential crisis, however, if it acknowledges that Greece’s economic pain is real and not entirely self-inflicted.”
Washington Post (December 29)
In China, rule by law is an “empty promise.” In the years since President Xi Jinping “came to power, hundreds of rights defenders and intellectuals have been thrown into prison for political reasons. Properties have been expropriated or demolished, free speech has been restricted, religion has been suppressed, women have been forced to have abortions, and torture has multiplied. In Xinjiang and Tibet, the authorities have carried out one shocking human rights catastrophe after another. The abuses have never stopped.” The current Government campaign of “‘governing the country according to law’ is just another attempt by the party to address its crisis of legitimacy. Such slogans may help the party fool people within China and the international community.”
Tags: Abuse, China, Crisis, Empty promise, Free speech, Government, Human rights, Legitimacy, Prison, Religion, Rule by law, Tibet, Torture, Xi, Xinjiang
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
Wall Street Journal (October 29)
Spain may be Europe’s “only real turnaround story in this crisis.” Growth looks poised to hit 1.3% for 2014. “The economy added 151,000 jobs, and unemployment fell 0.8 percentage points.” But Spain remains a qualified success. At 23.7%, the unemployment rate is “still a numbing figure, but well down from last year’s 26%.”
Tags: Crisis, Economy, Europe, Growth, Jobs, Spain, Turnaround, Unemployment
The Economist (October 18)
At 250% of GDP, China has a debt problem. Still, this “is unlikely to cause a sudden crisis or blow up the world economy. That is because China, unlike most other countries, controls its banks and has the means to bail them out.” The lack of crisis may drive China down the same road Japan took in the post-bubble decades. “The biggest risk is complacency: that China’s officials do too little to clean up the financial system, weighing down its economy for years with zombie firms and unpayable loans.”
Tags: Banks, China, Complacency, Crisis, Debt problem, Economy, Financial system, GDP, Japan, Loans, Risk, Zombie
Los Angeles Times (July 22)
“It’s neither pleasant nor polite to say it, but the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 may have been the best thing to happen to President Obama’s policy on Ukraine in weeks.” The U.S. had taken the lead, but the crisis had been fading from the radar as Europe’s politicians tried to avoid sacrificing business interests with Russia. Now, however, “Putin has a problem he didn’t have a week ago: Europe’s politicians and public are watching.”
Tags: Business interests, Crash, Crisis, Europe, Flight 17, Malaysia Airlines, Obama, Putin, Russia, U.S., Ukraine
