This week's speech by David Cameron on a UK referendum has generated the usual caustic knee jerk response from Europhiles about swivel eyed Europhobes. This shouldn't be a surprise given that a lot of the criticisms directed at the euro project 12 years ago have come to pass, with tragic...

European politicians' attempts to resolve the debt crisis splintering Europe has resulted in a split.

Germany and other northern countries - insistent on fiscal discipline and economic reforms - versus southern European economies who are reluctant to implement reforms and cut spending levels.

It is this problem that truly...

If concerns about Europe and exposure to the amount of bad debt on European banks balance sheets weren't enough for the banking sector to think about, the current furore surrounding the Libor fixing scandal isn't likely to change public perception of mistrust with respect to the problems facing a sector...

This morning's disappointing revision in Q4 GDP lower makes it all the more important that the Q1 numbers come in showing some semblance of a recovery in the growth picture.

It would certainly need Q1 growth of at least 0.4% to keep the economy moving higher on an annualised basis,...

The recent Q4 GDP numbers, while disappointing, weren't that much of a surprise given the weakness of some of the recent economic data, especially in respect to industrial and manufacturing production.

It is also worth noting that this is the first estimate of GDP, at -0.2% will no doubt...

You could say that 2011 started well for the euro with the admission of Estonia on 1 January, bringing the number of members to 17. Confidence was high and EU ministers were optimistic that Ireland would be the final European country to ask for a bailout.

However, the reality...

Wednesday night's deal by the EU leaders came about as a result of the increasing Government pressure on the banks to reduce the bill run up by the Greek government. The banks accepted a "voluntary haircut" of 50% on their holdings of Greek government debt (i.e they technically agreed to...