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The Blog
When the first Euros were printed in 1999, Europe chose a bold new future. But beneath the surface, the new European economy was built on shaky foundations. The decision is one of the biggest we have faced. The answer is clear: Europe must go for growth.
The endless eurozone crisis provokes a despairing weariness. The G8 has come and gone in Camp David, bringing, so it seems, a solution no nearer. Yet another EU summit will gather later this week. No-one is holding their breath that something fresh and decisive will emerge to halt the ever-mestasising threat of sovereign default. Yet, something has recently changed. To weariness, now add raw alarm. Over the years, European politicians have repeatedly cried wolf, invoking deadlines for a final solution to the euro-crisis that they have then declined to honour. Now, the new deadline is the Greek general election on 17 June. David Cameron has even labelled it a referendum on membership of the eurozone.
Clearly fast moving events elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Greece and Spain, are giving added impetus to the whole issue of Britain's relationship with the European Union. They are also driving the issue closer and closer to the decision makers in the main parties. In recent weeks, we have seen a growing number of establishment Labour figures accepting that a referendum may have to be held.
According to the Observer, senior members of Labour's shadow cabinet want Ed Miliband to commit Labour at the next election to an in-out referendum on the European Union. Is that wise?
Something really extraordinary has happened this week. In his speech to the IOD in Manchester, the prime minister has fashioned a new narrative for his government's economic agenda. Before jetting off to the G8 in the US, he has talked of austerity WITH stimulus for the first time - and seems to have consigned to the political dustbin that 'binary choice' rhetoric of his first two years in government. With low to no growth in the UK, Camp David may prove to be an appropriately named location for one D Cameron. Is he now pitching his tent on new political ground? I'm fascinated.
Thinking about the challenging times facing financial services providers in Europe, it might help to laugh a bit. However, no one's dismissing how challenging these times really are for financial service providers.
Following the failure on 15 May of the Greek president's last-ditch attempt to put together a parliamentary majority willing to back a government of unity, Greece is heading for another general election, probably on 17 June, the outcome of which is unlikely to reassure financial markets.
Unfortunately we have now got to a point where everybody needs to stop acting as they have for years and start acting like each other. German sensibleness must give way to extravagance; Spanish manana must switch to ahora and Italian unpredictability must morph into political security.
No one should take comfort from the inevitable truth hurtling towards the Eurozone countries faster than Phidippides carried news of a previous Athenian disaster abroad. It is, like most truths, simple. Greece will sooner or later fall out of the Euro.
Asia and the world is growing tired of eurozone instability which is why it is time for some bolder action and for some realpolitik about just what is sustainable.
Rarely has an election resonated so widely across the European Union as the French presidential ballot has done. Rarely has a leadership change in one EU member state created expectations of a real policy shift.
By the time you read this, the Greek elections will probably be over and we will be waiting for the full results of the 6 May ballot battle, to show us what in blue blazes Greece does next.
France, and the rest of Europe, is still at a crossroads. The path that Hollande could lead his country down could be the road to ruin.
Europe is in the midst of a growth and political crisis which has thrown the continent into a recession; yet across Europe centre-right Member States are holding to the status-quo and continuing to maintain budgetary restraint and austere spending policies.
I've always had a slight fear of clowns. The terrifying need to hide behind ridiculous gestures and make-up combined with the efforts of the clown fro...
What would it take to make you abandon your children? Not war? Not even disaster? The answer coming out of parents in Greece right now might shock you. It's economic crisis. And it's tearing families apart.
