There was not much talk about the euro crisis during the Christmas holidays. For a few days we almost pretended everything was well and we could relax. But now just when many have realized that January is going to be a hard month, never mind that we tried to be careful with the expenses, we have been hit with the euro sliding to below $1.27, the lowest since September 2010 Read the rest of this entry »

It was not necessary to be an economist to know that this financial debacle was about to happen. In both sides of the Atlantic politicians have left the banks rule and have been too timorous to face them. In the process, we have had the housing bubble -the US and Spain are two good examples of it-, unemployment at levels that are intolerable and an always growing difference between the haves and the have-nots. Read the rest of this entry »

It was not easy but after months of debate the 16 European countries that use the Euro as their currency agreed on a financial deal to help Greece. Read the rest of this entry »

On this coming Thursday, the European Union 27 leaders will gather in Brussels for a summit dedicated to revive the European economy. While the summit was called by the new European president, Herman Van Rompuy, not much action has yet been seen or heard from his office. Read the rest of this entry »

Ten years ago Europe’s newest single currency, the Euro, began trading. It was its start as a global financial power and it took three more years for the simultaneous conversion of eleven European currencies into euro notes and coins. Read the rest of this entry »

10 years after the European Central Bank was established, European leaders gathered in Frankfurt’s Old Opera to celebrate the accomplishment. How have things turned out and has the ambitious decision of launching an economic and monetary union paid off? Read the rest of this entry »

Last Friday I published an article about the French president’s TV interview. As I had written it before it happened, I thought I could elaborate a little about what transpired during the almost two hours (it had been planned for 90 minutes) that it lasted. As I was curious about how he will go about it, I stayed glued to the TV watching Nicolas Sarkozy explaining and unambiguously defending his planned reforms as well as some of his positions on national and international politics. Read the rest of this entry »