Elections in the US, specially presidential elections, have always been mystifying for Europeans, though little by little some European politicians are beginning to copy some aspects of it, like introducing families, and making their lives known to their constituents. Still there is a lot to catch up if in reality they want to transform their elections into the circus attractions and even the nastiness the American elections end up turning into. Read the rest of this entry »

Fall seems to be the time for elections. Yesterday some of them took place in three continents: Africa, America and Europe. Probably the one most followed was the election in Tunisia where the first vote of the Arab Spring took place. 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 »

Not everybody is going to be happy with the appointment of the current French Finance and Economics Minister Christine Lagarde as the next leader of the International Monetary Fund. An appointment that it is perceived by some as a loss to the developing world where it was expected the top position at the IMF would not go again to an European as up to now it has always been. Read the rest of this entry »

As we already reported on May 6, the influx of African migrants trying to reach Europe has created concern in some European countries and has given a reason to others to try to reform the rules of the Schengen accord with the aim to reimpose border control in the EU. On Wednesday, Denmark announced plans to set up customs booths at land border crossings, harbors and airports. Read the rest of this entry »

The Western world entered the conflict of Libya under the UN blessing to supposedly defend civilians from Gaddafi’s massacre. Quite a few weeks have gone by and nothing has been resolved. Except that many people have died and now NATO is bombarding Tripoli with the aim to get the Libyan leader. Many would say that was not what the UN resolution said but that is the way it is. Read the rest of this entry »

While in the United States the high-speed rail does not appear to have a good future, as it has been one of the programs cut from the budget, Europe is going the opposite way. Read the rest of this entry »