It was in autumn 2011: The euro crisis was getting worse and worse - and slowly spreading from smaller economies, like Greece and Portugal, to larger players, like Spain, and even Italy.
Especially controversial was Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, who was ridiculed for his positions and lack of action. As a result, his country's standing reached a new low. But then there was the 'great relief' of November 12 when Berlusconi stepped down. His job was taken over by Mario Monit – an economics professor, who, with his plans to get the budget back in order, won a lot of sympathy and trust, not just for Italy, but for the euro currency users as a whole.
Italy, however, remains a problem for the eurozone, says Lars Feld, economics professor at the University of Freiburg and member of the German Council of Economic Experts, which advises the government in Berlin. "With the Monti government, the country only temporarily has agreed to pursue consolidating its budget and tackling structural reform," Feld told Deutsche Welle.
Read more: Euro crisis returns - in Italy, Spain and Cyprus | Europe | DW.DE | 23.02.2013
Showing posts with label euro crises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label euro crises. Show all posts
3/14/12
Germany to Europe: Don't criticize us on eurocrisis leadership - by Robert Marquand
Amid Europe's most serious economic crisis since World War II, Germany has taken the lead. Berlin insists on austerity as a way to reform debtor nations and as a price tag for bailouts worth billions. European nations en masse are signing up to live within their means.
On March 2, German Chancellor Angela Merkel got 25 of the 27 European Union nations to agree to hard-wire fiscal discipline and debt limits into their national laws – a quiet shift with historic implications.
The world criticizes Germany for being strong, but not leading, in the euro crisis. Now, as we start to lead, we are criticized, if not demonized. We are called selfish or Nazis. But if we are to lead, we want to use our experience, our rules, and our models. That means an austerity policy favoring price stability and cutting debt. And we don't want to be rushed; we have domestic political hurdles to surmount. German voters don't want to pay for others' excesses. They were told when Germany joined the eurozone that they would not have to bail anyone out. This is basic.
For more: Germany to Europe: Don't criticize us on eurocrisis leadership - CSMonitor.com
On March 2, German Chancellor Angela Merkel got 25 of the 27 European Union nations to agree to hard-wire fiscal discipline and debt limits into their national laws – a quiet shift with historic implications.
The world criticizes Germany for being strong, but not leading, in the euro crisis. Now, as we start to lead, we are criticized, if not demonized. We are called selfish or Nazis. But if we are to lead, we want to use our experience, our rules, and our models. That means an austerity policy favoring price stability and cutting debt. And we don't want to be rushed; we have domestic political hurdles to surmount. German voters don't want to pay for others' excesses. They were told when Germany joined the eurozone that they would not have to bail anyone out. This is basic.
For more: Germany to Europe: Don't criticize us on eurocrisis leadership - CSMonitor.com
12/21/11
Moody's says euro crisis danger to UK top-debt grade
The continuing crisis in the euro zone is also posing a threat to Britain's top debt rating as further shocks to the country's economy could derail the government's efforts to balance the budget, ratings agency Moody's said on Tuesday.
"The currently stable outlook on the UK government's Aaa rating depends in part on the assumption that the government will stay on track with its fiscal consolidation programme," Moody's said in its annual credit report on the country.
Finance minister George Osborne had to propose further austerity measures beyond the previously planned five-year time horizon in his autumn statement as weak growth is hitting his efforts to protect the country's top-credit rating by erasing the country's budget deficit of nearly 10 percent.
For more: Moody's says euro crisis danger to UK top-debt grade - Reuters -
"The currently stable outlook on the UK government's Aaa rating depends in part on the assumption that the government will stay on track with its fiscal consolidation programme," Moody's said in its annual credit report on the country.
Finance minister George Osborne had to propose further austerity measures beyond the previously planned five-year time horizon in his autumn statement as weak growth is hitting his efforts to protect the country's top-credit rating by erasing the country's budget deficit of nearly 10 percent.
For more: Moody's says euro crisis danger to UK top-debt grade - Reuters -
12/20/11
Strauss-Kahn: Euro Collapse Not a Solution - by Bob Davis
Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, looking to re-establish his credentials as a global political presence after a sex scandal, sharply criticized Europe's handling of its debt crisis and predicted as many as seven years of subpar European growth unless the Continent's leaders changed policies.
Europe's political shortcomings are "bleeding away, day by day, the remaining confidence investors may have in politicians being able to solve the crisis," Mr. Strauss-Kahn said. A €640 billion rescue fund (about $833 billion) being assembled by the European Union and the IMF is "in limbo" because it requires political approvals that may take months to obtain, he added.
He chose a conference in Beijing organized by a Chinese Internet company, NetEase.com Inc., to make his remarks, the first since he resigned under pressure earlier this year. Neither Mr. Strauss-Kahn nor the conference organizers would say how much he was paid for the address.
In his speech, He said Europe's leaders had focused too heavily on the Continent's debt problems and insufficiently on growth—though the IMF under his leadership had insisted that European nations cut social spending in exchange for IMF loans.
For more: Strauss-Kahn: Euro Collapse Not a Solution - WSJ.com
Europe's political shortcomings are "bleeding away, day by day, the remaining confidence investors may have in politicians being able to solve the crisis," Mr. Strauss-Kahn said. A €640 billion rescue fund (about $833 billion) being assembled by the European Union and the IMF is "in limbo" because it requires political approvals that may take months to obtain, he added.
He chose a conference in Beijing organized by a Chinese Internet company, NetEase.com Inc., to make his remarks, the first since he resigned under pressure earlier this year. Neither Mr. Strauss-Kahn nor the conference organizers would say how much he was paid for the address.
In his speech, He said Europe's leaders had focused too heavily on the Continent's debt problems and insufficiently on growth—though the IMF under his leadership had insisted that European nations cut social spending in exchange for IMF loans.
For more: Strauss-Kahn: Euro Collapse Not a Solution - WSJ.com
12/7/11
EU: Conflicting visions at core of euro zone crisis
Since the inception of the euro, France and Germany have pursued divergent visions of European economic and monetary union. In two decades, the French have become a little more German, the Germans a little more French. But the gulf remains.
With the fate of the 17-nation single currency at stake at a summit this week, 20 years almost to the day since the Maastricht summit at which European leaders agreed to merge their monies, the same battles are still being fought out.
Between sovereignty and federalism; between "stability" and growth; between more solidarity and stricter discipline; between a directorate of big states and a more democratic organization for the continent; and between a tightly-knit "core Europe" and a broader but looser union.
The outcome of Friday's 27-nation European Union summit may determine the course of the world's largest trading bloc.
For more: Insight: Conflicting visions at core of euro zone crisis | Reuters
11/21/11
Euro Crises - the Netherlands: What have the Dutch ever done for us? - by Peter de Waard
Peter de Waard writes in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant: "In the current crisis, the Dutch tend to pontificate about the citizens of ill performing countries like Greece and Italy. But as recession now looms, they should keep in mind that their prosperity isn’t just due to their own virtuousness.
What have the Romans ever done for us?”, asks John Cleese in the famous Monty Python satire Life of Brian to his resistance group. “The aqueduct”, whispers one. “And...sanitation”, another. “Roads.” “Irrigation.” “Medicine.” “Education.” “Wine.” “Clean water.” “Yes, but apart from aqueducts, sanitation, roads, irrigation, education, wine, medicine, clean water?” calls out a despairing Cleese. “Eh...public baths.”
A large proportion of Dutch people want to first get rid of the Greeks, then the Italians. And actually the Spanish and the Portuguese as well. Maybe it would be better for the French to leave the eurozone too. And the Belgians.
Since World War 2, there has never been so much stereotyping of European peoples as in the past weeks. The suggestion is that there is an unbridgeable culture gap between the hard working North Europeans and the lazy souls in the south.
The past is quickly forgotten. In 2004 and 2005, praise was heard from all over Europe for Spain and Ireland for having the most successful economies of the entire continent. The Netherlands could consider itself lucky to be associated with the Spanish wonder child and the Celtic Tiger. Spain, Portugal and Italy were at the heart of the new Europe.
In the seventies, though, it was the Netherlands that was the pariah of Europe. In 1977, British weekly The Economist ran a cover on The Dutch Disease – the deindustrialization of the industrial sector and the squandering of income from natural resources, the gas from Slochteren, in favour of social provisions and leftist projects.
It still appears as an economic model in Wikipedia and is used in the UK and US, whether relevant or not, as a metaphor for economic processes that are in the doldrums. It is much more familiar than the “polder model” that twenty years later made the Netherlands a model nation.
But while the Netherlands boomed with the polder model in the eighties and nineties, Sweden experienced a banking crisis. Meanwhile, Germany struggled to emerge from the depths into which it had sunk following reunification. The point is that economic success is not linked to a nation. It is rather a question of the “Law of the Handicap of a Head Start' as the historian Jan Romein described it in 1937. Over time a head start turns into a handicap.
We deduct our mortgage repayments from our tax returns, have expensive healthcare and pensions to pay. These all hang like a millstone around the neck of the Netherlands. With a recession looming, maybe in years to come the Greeks and Italians will then wonder what the Dutch ever did for Europe. “The windmill.” “The polder.” “The cassette deck.” “Eh... the CD player.” Cleese would then say: “But which of those things are still actually useful today?”
EU-Digest
What have the Romans ever done for us?”, asks John Cleese in the famous Monty Python satire Life of Brian to his resistance group. “The aqueduct”, whispers one. “And...sanitation”, another. “Roads.” “Irrigation.” “Medicine.” “Education.” “Wine.” “Clean water.” “Yes, but apart from aqueducts, sanitation, roads, irrigation, education, wine, medicine, clean water?” calls out a despairing Cleese. “Eh...public baths.”
A large proportion of Dutch people want to first get rid of the Greeks, then the Italians. And actually the Spanish and the Portuguese as well. Maybe it would be better for the French to leave the eurozone too. And the Belgians.
Since World War 2, there has never been so much stereotyping of European peoples as in the past weeks. The suggestion is that there is an unbridgeable culture gap between the hard working North Europeans and the lazy souls in the south.
The past is quickly forgotten. In 2004 and 2005, praise was heard from all over Europe for Spain and Ireland for having the most successful economies of the entire continent. The Netherlands could consider itself lucky to be associated with the Spanish wonder child and the Celtic Tiger. Spain, Portugal and Italy were at the heart of the new Europe.
In the seventies, though, it was the Netherlands that was the pariah of Europe. In 1977, British weekly The Economist ran a cover on The Dutch Disease – the deindustrialization of the industrial sector and the squandering of income from natural resources, the gas from Slochteren, in favour of social provisions and leftist projects.
It still appears as an economic model in Wikipedia and is used in the UK and US, whether relevant or not, as a metaphor for economic processes that are in the doldrums. It is much more familiar than the “polder model” that twenty years later made the Netherlands a model nation.
But while the Netherlands boomed with the polder model in the eighties and nineties, Sweden experienced a banking crisis. Meanwhile, Germany struggled to emerge from the depths into which it had sunk following reunification. The point is that economic success is not linked to a nation. It is rather a question of the “Law of the Handicap of a Head Start' as the historian Jan Romein described it in 1937. Over time a head start turns into a handicap.
We deduct our mortgage repayments from our tax returns, have expensive healthcare and pensions to pay. These all hang like a millstone around the neck of the Netherlands. With a recession looming, maybe in years to come the Greeks and Italians will then wonder what the Dutch ever did for Europe. “The windmill.” “The polder.” “The cassette deck.” “Eh... the CD player.” Cleese would then say: “But which of those things are still actually useful today?”
EU-Digest
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