Germany – Page 5 – Slugger O'Toole

Euro crisis: “Europe has been producing its usual cacophony of voices in the past few days”

Pete Baker on May 24, 2011, 9:20 pm

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BBC Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, has been looking at Spain in the aftermath of defeat for the prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s ruling socialist party in municipal and regional elections. From Gavin Hewitt But nerves are back. In weekend elections the governing Socialist party took a thrashing. Even in strongholds like Seville and Castilla-La Mancha it was defeated. There is a pattern emerging in Europe. Given a chance, the people turn on the incumbents. In Spain national elections do not …

Euro crisis: “When it becomes serious, you have to lie.”?

Pete Baker on May 19, 2011, 3:55 pm

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Another article, to add to those noted by Mick, on the wider economic and political considerations being argued in the eurozone. At the Guardian, Nuno Monteiro and Eduardo Sousa warn While a growing number of analysts recognise the likelihood of sovereign-debt defaults across Europe’s periphery in the next few years, the continent’s political and financial elites continue to see restructuring as the third rail of financial options. Despite all signs that the euro may be set on an implosion course, the EU …

Euro crisis: “It would raise incredible doubts about our credibility if we simply were to change the rules…”

Pete Baker on May 17, 2011, 3:45 pm

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With EU finance ministers pondering the future for Greece, and European officials publicly disagreeing on the possiblity of the rescheduling/restructuring of sovereign debt, Frau Bundeskanzerlin has decreed that there will be no sovereign default in the euro zone before 2013. As ministers prepared to tackle the increasingly precarious financial situation in Greece, Dr Merkel made clear her resistance to any debt restructuring by the country. Addressing students in Berlin, Dr Merkel said private sovereign creditors should not bear losses until …

Robert Peston: “it will be squeaky bum time in government buildings all over Europe.”

Pete Baker on May 11, 2011, 2:54 pm

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The BBC’s business editor, and still everyone’s hero, Robert Peston, identifies the reasons why Europe continues to prescribe medication, rather than opting for untested, and risky, surgery. At least for now. From the Peston’s Picks blog There seem to be three reasons. First, in Germany, it is apparently politically more acceptable to provide rescue finance to Greece directly than to rescue German banks that foolishly and greedily bought Greek debt for its relatively high yield. Second, a Greek debt restructuring would …

Euro crisis: “This is Europe’s awful dilemma. The patient is the euro.”

Pete Baker on May 10, 2011, 3:47 pm

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Taoiseach Enda Kenny has warned that Dr Doom Morgan Kelly’s prescription for Ireland would deliver “a lethal injection to the Irish economy“. At the Guardian’s Ireland Business blog, Stephen Kinsella, in part one of a two-part post, identifies some of the implications of “an immediate balancing of the books”. The fiscal problem is pretty clear. There is a big gap between what Ireland spends, and what she makes. Including promissory notes, the Irish government has been taking in roughly €53.3bn and spending …

Euro crisis: “The “European project” won’t go quietly into the night…”

Pete Baker on May 9, 2011, 3:03 pm

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Whilst the Irish Government waits for “the right time” to play whatever cards they think they have, Greece is still in the vanguard of the PIGS. As the BBC Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, points out To the issue that caused a tremor in the markets on Friday: that Greece may opt to leave the euro. It has been met with fierce denials. For the moment it seems a highly unlikely option. And yet in German circles it is being discussed. In …

Euro crisis: “The Government is due to consider a potential programme of asset disposals…”

Pete Baker on April 16, 2011, 4:30 pm

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Greece were the first of the PIGS to request a EU-IMF bail-out – with the threat of contagion, as Mack’s timeline records, leading to the construction of a wider mechanism which Ireland, eventually, availed of. The result, according to ECB executive Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, of the “choice of economic model” by “successive governments, and their voters”. As Tim Garton Ash commented at the time, “The crisis of the eurozone has only just begun.” A year on and, as BBC Europe editor Gavin Hewitt noted …

“What is clear is that Dublin’s perspective will not be the defining one.”

Pete Baker on April 5, 2011, 4:44 pm

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In his Irish Times European Diary Arthur Beesley sketches out the domestic political pressures elsewhere which may hinder the Irish Government’s attempt to renegotiate the terms of their bail-out. From the Irish Times article In Portugal, fellow socialist Jose Socrates talked himself into an early election a few weeks ago by failing to win support for a new austerity drive. The country is said to be in a funk of despair over the prospects of a bailout. Look northwards from Spain …

“The net point is that Ireland’s lenders retain all the power…”

Pete Baker on April 1, 2011, 9:01 pm

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With tensions rising across Europe, in the Irish Times Arthur Beesley maps out the territory as the Irish Government prepares to attempt to tentatively restart the debate on reducing Ireland’s bail-out interest rate. As noted previously, Arthur Beesley has highlighted some of this territory before The Government’s position is not at all strong, so repeated claims that the situation is now so grave as to merit pursuing senior bonds serves to emphasise the requirement for something else to ease the pain. Important …

Time for Europe’s ‘pusillanimous politicians’ to do the right thing?

Mick Fealty on April 1, 2011, 11:07 am

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Right, stop me if I’ve got this wrong, but it seems to me that Ireland faces two big problems: bank liquidity; and a debt mountain (which has just got way bigger). In order to service the first, the second (whilst already large due to a massive fall in tax receipts) has been made unfeasibly high (how’s that small panic attack going Robert?). The Economist has an obivious solution, but one that is not going to popular with European heads of …

The Liberation of Stalingrad.

Dewi on March 27, 2011, 8:20 am

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I started looking at the British Pathe News site to see footage of Jackie Kyle, my late Dad’s favourite outside half. There’s very little of him to see but the site is wonderful. Here’s a fabulous 8 minute clip on the liberation of Stalingrad. “German generals never surrender…24 surrendered at Stalingrad”. At 5.15 you see Paulus with his nervous twitch… Copyright – British Pathe News. DewiWelsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…

Euro crisis: “The fix is not in. A line has not been drawn. And tensions are rising.”

Pete Baker on March 25, 2011, 7:59 pm

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What to make of the news emerging at the end of the two-day EU summit in Brussels? It depends. The RTÉ report tells us The EU is battling to stem a debt crisis that has raged for over a year and led Ireland and Greece to accept bailouts. It had promised to unveil a comprehensive solution at this summit that it hoped would reassure jittery markets. But the abrupt resignation of Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates on the eve of …

Euro crisis: “If Portugal asks, we will be ready to intervene…”

Pete Baker on March 24, 2011, 6:59 pm

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To the apparent outrage of some, last night Taoiseach Enda Kenny agreed to defer seeking a conclusion to talks on reducing Ireland’s bail-out interest rate at the two-day EU summit in Brussels. At the IIEA blog, Karl Whelan argued After a lot of fighting talk about renegotiation during the recent election campaign, the new Irish leader Enda Kenny probably feels a certain amount of pressure to come home from this summit with a deal on the interest rate. My advice, for what …

“The result is a crisis in European democracy”

Pete Baker on March 14, 2011, 4:06 pm

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On the back of a survey of more than 5,000 people of working age in the UK, Germany, France, Poland and Spain, the Guardian editorialises on the future of the EU. They’re promising a month long series of articles mapping out the social, political and economic terrain. From the Guardian editorial The poll we publish today is taken from a sample of more than 5,000 people of working age in the five leading EU states – Britain, France, Germany, Spain and …

Euro crisis: “Expect some late nights.”

Pete Baker on March 8, 2011, 11:35 pm

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More encouraging noises for the incoming Taoiseach from the European Union’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn. As the Irish Times reports “I can see that there is a case to reduce the interest rates paid by Greece and Ireland,” the commissioner said. “In that context, it is important that we also look at loan maturities so that we can go beyond the hump of 2014 and 2015 and that also contributes to debt sustainability . . . The essential …

“We are all witnesses to the game.”

Pete Baker on February 9, 2011, 12:56 pm

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The Irish Times‘ Arthur Beesley reports that EU Council president, Herman Van Rompuy, was accused by MEPs of being less than honest in his account of the Council’s discussion of Frau Bundeskanzlerin’s “grand bargain”. From the Irish Times report MEPs criticised Mr Van Rompuy’s positive tone, one of them saying it smacked of Soviet-era propaganda. “We’re getting feedback as if everything had gone swimmingly, that wonderful results had been achieved,” said German Green Rebecca Harms. “It’s a bit like the …

“To say Ireland is cornered might be to understate the situation.”

Pete Baker on February 5, 2011, 4:38 pm

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No agreement emerged on the details of Germany and France’s proposed “pact for competitiveness” for the eurozone at yesterday’s EU Council meeting. The Irish Times reports “a swathe” of opposition expressed at the meeting, while The Guardian editorialises against the German model – but accepts that the eurozone’s “economic rules do need an overhaul”. The EU Council press release is brief on the topic The economic situation The EU leaders discussed the economic situation in Europe and the eurozone. President Van …

“Yet another crucial moment in the debt drama is upon us.”

Pete Baker on February 4, 2011, 11:56 am

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EU leaders are meeting in Brussels today, including caretaking Taoiseach Brian Cowen, and the Irish Times‘ Derek Scally has had sight of a draft paper on Frau Bundeskanzlerin’s “grand bargain”. From the Irish Times report The draft paper is low on detail but high on ambition: “to create a permanent connection between European competitiveness, growth and viable financial politics”. After presenting the broad brush strokes today, Dr Merkel wants EU leaders to discuss the detail and fill in the canvas by …

Frau Bundeskanzlerin’s “grand bargain”

Pete Baker on February 2, 2011, 1:57 pm

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The BBC’s Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, has the latest murmurings from Europe on Frau Bundeskanzlerin’s “grand bargain”. If true, it could indicate the price to be paid for renegotiating the terms of Ireland’s €85 billion bail-out… From Gavin Hewitt’s Europe blog Much of the detail is still being discussed. There are differences within the German cabinet and between eurozone countries. However, a broad outline is emerging. Germany will agree to increase the lending power of the main bail-out fund (the EFSF) so …

Euro crisis: Frau Bundeskanzlerin answers history’s knock

Pete Baker on January 20, 2011, 1:38 pm

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History has been knocking for some time… and, for good or ill, Angela Merkel “is perceived to set policy, pace and tone at every turn.” But has the public been softened up sufficiently for historic change? In the Irish Times Derek Scally reports from Berlin In recent off-the-record briefings, the German leader has shown an unusual determination for the task she has set herself. She wants “real harmonisation”, not just “closer co-ordination”. After months of silent backing for her euro zone strategy, leaders in Scandinavia …