Edward Markus - founder, owner and chief analyst of ECR Research and ICC - is coauthor of this blog. Austerity vs Growth The focus in Europe is ...
The ECB has decided to cut rates by 25bps to a record low of 50bps this week, in a move that was widely expected. Despite much of the reporting of thi...
I was delighted to read last week's news that from 2016, Winston Churchill will be the new face of the fiver (five pound note, about $7.50, if you're reading this in the US). Now, my reaction isn't surprising, given that I wrote a book about Sir Winston. But it goes far beyond my appreciation for the man who led Britain through her darkest hour and into her finest.
Another week, another reminder that keeping the Euro alive and well, (a generous term), is all just a game of politics.
Why is it that I always seem to have to write these pieces just before some binary event or other, usually of Eurozone origin, meaning that by Tuesday (in this case), I could look extremely foolish?! Oh well here goes: my feeling is that the Cypriot crisis will fade from memory over the next few weeks and won't lead to wider Eurozone contagion. There - I've said it.
Banks in Cyprus have reopened, with large queues of people trying to withdraw their money. It is the first time citizens have been able to get hold...
European markets tumbled on Monday after the leading eurozone finance minister suggested the Cyprus deal that saw bank accounts of individual deposito...
Brussels have decided the unravelling of the Euro and the wider European Project is unthinkable; in order to save the post-World War II consensus, principles and agreements are now void. The euro must be saved at all costs. Merkel has resigned to accepting the end will justify the means; a banking and political union must occur, regardless of the path of misery that awaits the periphery.
Yesterday a man decided that the pound's value against the euro and the dollar was 'just about right'. As a result, the pound stopped weakening against the euro and the dollar, as it has been doing so for several months. I was disappointed. I get paid in euros so I benefit from the pound being weak.
The risk of a Cypriot default has fallen with the decisive victory of the centre-right candidate, Nicos Anastasiades, in the presidential election on 24 February. However, the risk has not entirely gone away and tough bail-out negotiations lie ahead for the new president.
The public excitement around the England team will take something really special in the difficult conditions of Brazil to restore it to anything like its previous scale. Still, if we finish the year having beaten Scotland at Wembley, plenty will be happy enough. Maybe actually the FA's 150th anniversary fixture list is inspired after all, by the management of low expectations?
Get out the map and dust off the history books. Britain IS part of Europe. Since the Roman and Norman invasions, its politics have been our politics.
Chaos that raged across Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal has spread to the heart of Brussels as police clashed with furious protesters during the Day...
A Day of Action and Solidarity across the EU is underway with around 40 groups from 23 countries staging walk-outs and strikes against rising unemploy...
I don't know about you, but I think Chancellor Angela Merkel is the most terrifying woman on the planet! It's almost like she's a 'German Margaret Thatcher'... Hold on a moment... She IS the 'German Margaret Thatcher'!
Labour MPs should support our MEP colleagues in saying that until the present right-wing anti-growth, anti-jobs ideology that controls Brussels is replaced by a more balanced politics the proposed budget settlement should be rejected.
IMF economists have finally acknowledged what politicians have long denied. They have shown that austerity policies implemented by politicians and demanded by financial markets are severely damaging to what economists define as 'growth'. Ultimately, argues the IMF, these policies are self-defeating. As most thinking people now recognise, rather than repairing the broken and bankrupt economies of the world, austerity is making matters worse.
We got into this mess through financial engineering and manipulation for individual profit. Maybe it's time we considered some more manipulation, this time for the benefit of everyone and not a greedy few.
Setting a budget is a difficult exercise at the best of times. Even when money is plentiful, it is never unlimited, so tough choices have to be made. Now imagine 27 countries, all with their own of difficulties and preferences, having to decide about billions of euros for a seven-year period in the midst of the biggest economic crisis since the great depression.
The Security Council is the most prestigious of the UN's organs, charged with upholding the core value of the charter ("to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war"), yet clearly its current form is beyond broken, its composition a farce.
Downing Street has brushed off German comparisons of David Cameron's Britain with the grumbling old men in The Muppets. German magazine Der Spiegel...
With the current crisis, it is easy to forget how successful the EU has been in creating wealth and jobs for its member states. That is why countries have always been keen to join and why, even now, several are in the waiting room.
With almost no serious coverage of the European Parliament the British public could be forgiven for regarding the EU as the massive generator of wasteful projects, inane legislation and bureaucratic gravy portrayed in the tabloids.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has warned that Europe could be plunged into war if the euro was to collapse. The senior Liberal Democrat said the c...
Europe cannot now be separated from the Euro, that shiny, happy currency that was marketed as a crucial tool in breaking down national borders. It is the Euro that has caused a resurgence of nationalism and it is not right to praise the EU while its citizens deal with this backlash.
