Tag Archives: Eurozone

Ruling for Big Taxi in Europe Could Spell End for Uber, Lyft, Airbnb

Saturday, 13 May 2017 05:35

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, May 12, 2017:

Embed from Getty Images

In what could spell the end of Uber (and by inference other digital information providers such as Lyft and Airbnb) in Europe, an advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has recommended that the court treat Uber as a “transportation service” and not a digital information service.

Advocate General Maciej Szpunar, a Polish lawyer, whose opinion carries such great weight among the 15 judges making up the ECJ that they usually follow it, said on Thursday: “The Uber electronic platform, whilst innovative, falls within the field of transport. Uber can thus be required to obtain the necessary licenses and authorizations under national law.”

Translation: Uber must now look and act like Big Taxi. Drivers cannot be “amateurs” but

Keep Reading…

Trump Administration Tips Its Hand, Oks Third Greek Bailout

Tuesday, 18 April 2017 06:18

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, April 17, 2017:

Embed from Getty Images

It took EURACTIV, the online source that focuses on European policymaking, to report that the Trump administration has signaled that, previous protestations to the contrary, it won’t object to a third Greek bailout. The anonymous Trump administration tipster told its reporters: “We’re looking for the Europeans to help Greece to resolve its economic problems by the Fund [the International Monetary Fund], despite the criticism of many Republicans regarding the two previous bailout programs in 2010 and 2012.”

This anonymous tip kicks to the curb protestations voiced by Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin in February that

Keep Reading…

Greece Needs Another Bailout; Disagreement Threatens EU Itself

Friday, 10 February 2017 06:42

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, February 9, 2017:

IMF Headquarters, Washington, DC.

IMF Headquarters

The report on Greece’s financial condition issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday was dismal, but, said the central bank, its future remains bright. First, the bad news: The EU member will fall far short of the budget-surplus targets put in place in order to get the last bailout. The Greek economy must grow at 3.1 percent but it expanded by only 0.4 percent last year.

However, the IMF said Greece’s economy is expected to grow by 2.7 percent in 2017. An unnamed European Union official who spoke to Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity said that

Keep Reading…

World Oil Glut Swells to 3 Billion Barrels, Driving Prices Down Further

Wednesday, 18 November 2015 06:04

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, November 16, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

Friday’s November report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) confounded so-called experts who have repeatedly predicted a bottom in oil prices. After West Texas Intermediate (WTI) briefly dropped below $40 a barrel in August, bulls were delighted to see prices for crude bounce up over $50 and stay there — right up until October.

The IEA report tried to corral all the complexities of the oil market into its two-page report:

Keep Reading…

Greece Passes into History as a Sovereign Nation

Wednesday, 22 July 2015 04:40

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, July 15, 2015:

Coat of arms of Greece since 7 June 1975.

Coat of arms of Greece since 7 June 1975.

From Genesis 25 one finds this:

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

After suffering through some 17 hours of haranguing and browbeating last weekend, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gave away Greece’s national sovereignty for some bread and a bowl of lentil stew.

And the stew smelled to high heaven.

Keep Reading…

The Great Greek Yard Sale

Wednesday, 15 July 2015 05:51

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, July 14, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

The great capitulation by Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last weekend will shortly be followed by the great Greek yard sale. Calling it an agreement rather than an ultimatum, the Eurozone statement from its ministers spelled out in painful detail the degree to which Greece will have lost its sovereign powers if the country’s parliament agrees to it.

First, Greece must accomplish the following no later than midnight Wednesday, July 15:

Keep Reading…

The Root Cause of Greece’s Problems: Socialism

Tuesday, 14 July 2015 05:41

This article was published online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, July 13, 2015:

English: Alexis Tsipras in a press conference ...

Alexis Tsipras

Returning to Brussels with an austerity program eerily similar to that just rejected by Greek citizens a week ago, Prime Minister Alex Tsipras hoped to obtain another bailout in exchange for debt forgiveness by the European Central Bank (ECB). Tsipras is desperate: His government must make a $7.8 billion payment to the ECB next Monday, and another $13 billion by the middle of August.

Instead, following marathon sessions lasting into the wee hours, those EU officials upped the ante, passing even more stringent demands before granting Tsipras his lifeline. It told Tsipras, in essence, either to paint or get off the ladder:

Keep Reading…

Fracking Is Boosting Reshoring of American Jobs

Friday, 10 July 2015 04:57

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, July 9, 2015:

In its latest report on American competitiveness, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that the average cost to make goods in the United States is now only five-percent higher than in China, and between 10 and 20 percent lower when compared to the major European economies such as Germany and France. In less than three years, BCG projects China’s advantage to disappear altogether.

While part of the reason is rising wages in China and in the Eurozone and American companies improving their productivity faster than their competitors abroad, the primary reason, says BCG, is fracking — the technology that has driven energy costs to a fraction of what they were just a few years ago.

Back in August 2013, Harold Sirkin, a senior partner at BCG, predicted the U-turn that would result in “reshoring” of millions of jobs, starting in 2015:

Keep Reading…

Greek Vote the Death Knell for the EU?

Thursday, 09 July 2015 03:53

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, July 8, 2015:

English: Nigel Farage at Lord's cricket ground...

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage, named “Briton of the Year” in 2014 by the London Times, has finally found his voice. He noisily departed the Conservative Party in 1992 after the signing of the treaty that created the European Union to start his own UK Independence Party (UKIP). His criticism of the EU has been steady ever since, culminating in his eulogy on Monday: “The European Union is Dying Before our Eyes.”

According to Farage, Sunday’s referendum in Greece sealed its death warrant, even if somehow the Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is able to come to terms with the troika and have them turn on the financial spigot once again: “It [was] a crushing defeat for those Eurocrats who believe that you can simply bulldoze public opinion.” He added,

Keep Reading…

Greeks Shout “NO!”

Monday, 06 July 2015 12:28

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, July 6, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

Greek citizens shouted “No!” to further austerity measures for the hapless country in exchange for more of what got it into trouble in the first place: other people’s money. The lopsided 60-40 vote astonished telephone pollsters, who predicted a much narrower victory for Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of the far-left Syriza party. Although the issues were far more complicated than the referendum made it appear, the 68-word ballot question made it easy: do you want more increases in taxes, more cuts in pension benefits, another increase in the VAT … or not? Translated into English, the ballot read:

Keep Reading…

Greece to the EU: NO!

Monday, 06 July 2015 05:38

This article was published online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, July 6, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

In an astonishing blow to the European Union’s credibility, Greek voters, fed up with five years of austerity, continuing recession, 25-percent unemployment, and severe cuts in pension payouts, strongly said “No!” at the ballot box Sunday. The 68-word ballot question, rejected by 61 percent of the voters, reads (translated into English):

Keep Reading…

Greece: Capital Controls Threat Increases as Deadline Approaches

Tuesday, 23 June 2015 04:22

This article first appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, June 22, 2015:

The announcement last week by Greece’s central bank that it may be forced to start implementing capital controls — eliminating the ability of Greeks who still have any money in the bank to withdraw it or send it to another country for safekeeping — may just be a ploy to bring more pressure on the Troika (European Central Bank, IMF, and eurozone countries) to release the last batch of funds from Bailout Number Three.

Withdrawals by nervous Greeks began last fall as Bailouts Number One, Two, and Three were only pushing the country further into recession. Withdrawal from the eurozone itself became increasingly likely, with the result that the euro would be replaced in Greece with a new currency with much less purchasing power.

Ever since Greece joined the European Community, later to be called the European Union, it has enjoyed far better credit ratings than it deserved. Assured that default was now no longer an option, central banks and other international financial institutions were more than willing to

Keep Reading…

Do Negative Interest Rates Portend a Negative Economy?

Tuesday, 05 May 2015 04:20

This article first appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, May 4, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

Last Thursday the London Daily Telegraph’s assistant editor, Jeremy Warner, reported an astonishing statistic: Almost a third of all government debt in the eurozone is paying negative interest rates. That’s more than $2 trillion in government bonds, and, it appears, investors are happy that they aren’t paying even more.

Fifty percent of French bonds now trade with a negative yield, while 70 percent of Germany’s bonds trade at a negative yield. More remarkably, in Spain, which was on the verge of insolvency just a few years ago, 17 percent of its government bonds now trade with a negative yield.

This is counterintuitive, which explains why Keynesians, those who believe that “demand” in an economy can be artificially increased by manipulating taxes and the money supply, have no explanation for it. In theory,

Keep Reading…

More Keynesian Insanity: Negative Interest Rates

Tuesday, 05 May 2015 04:11

This article first appeared at The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, May 4, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

There’s a corollary to the insanity rule. It’s called the Keynesian Corollary: When something doesn’t work, do more of it. When history is written about the coming Second Great Recession, historians will likely note July 2012 as the turning point. That was when Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank (ECB) said during a panel discussion that the ECB “is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough.”

Other historians might list that as one of the top ten “famous last words” ever issued by a human being. Since that moment bond yields across the world have dropped, and dropped, and dropped. On Thursday Jeremy Warner, the London Daily Telegraph’s assistant editor, announced that

Keep Reading…

Swiss Issue an Unequivocal Buy Signal for Gold

Saturday, 06 December 2014 06:40

This article first appeared at The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, December 5, 2014:

#185920843 / gettyimages.com

Rarely do the precious markets receive such an unequivocal, unblemished, unalloyed buy signal as the one issued by the Swiss when they voted down, 3-to-1, a referendum that would have modestly restricted the activities of its central bank.

Months earlier, polls showed that the “Save Our Swiss Gold” initiative was likely to pass, but massive publicity campaigns and moves by Citigroup to cash in on it caused a huge shift in public sentiment, with the final vote on Sunday, November 30 defeating it by a 78-22% margin.

The Swiss, being a direct democracy, are known for referendums, voting on an average of five of them every year, with most of them failing. But this one caused rejoicing among observers and Swiss National Bank (SNB) officials that likely put in a bottom in the gold market. Had it passed, the referendum would have required the SNB to

Keep Reading…

Crude Oil Price Declines Reveal Who’s Swimming Naked

Thursday, 04 December 2014 06:14

This article first appeared at The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, December 3, 2014:

Ali Al Naimi

Ali Al Naimi

One of the most famous homespun quotes Warren Buffett ever uttered is this: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” With the decline in crude oil prices of nearly 50 percent since June, more and more people are finding themselves swimming naked, or they’re about to.

Consider the formerly invincible oil cartel, OPEC, which seems to be suffering from delusions of its former glory by taking on oil producers in America. Instead of cutting production in order to “stabilize” oil prices, the cartel, led by the aging big kahuna, Saudi Arabia, has decided to

Keep Reading…

Lower Crude Oil Prices Already Pinching Producers

Wednesday, 03 December 2014 06:09

This article first appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, December 2, 2014:

Coat of Arms of Saudi Arabia

Coat of Arms of Saudi Arabia

As crude oil prices continued their breathtaking drop, the CEO of Canadian Natural Resources, Canada’s largest oil company, Murray Edwards (the 14th wealthiest Canadian) was asked on Friday just how much further crude oil prices could decline. His response:

On a given day you can have market fluctuations where prices fluctuate far more than the underlying economic value of the unit. Prices could spike down to $30, $40. It got down to $35 in 2008, for a very short period of time.

On Monday crude oil prices briefly stabilized and then dropped further on Tuesday, hitting new four-year lows.

This pronouncement is at odds with an oil production estimate by the seemingly eternal oil optimist and economist Mark Perry, who rejoiced on Monday that

Keep Reading…

Thanks to America’s Fracking Boom and Skilled Labor Force, Re-shoring of Jobs is Accelerating

Wednesday, 25 September 2013 15:21

More than half of 200 US companies with sales greater than $1 billion are moving jobs back to the US, or are planning to, within the next two years. The announcement by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on Tuesday confirms a subterranean paradigm shift that’s been underway for at least

Keep Reading…

Staff Report from the IMF Blames the European Union for Mishandling the Greek Crisis

Thursday, 06 June 2013 13:41

The report from the International Monetary Fund is remarkable in its candor: efforts to bail out Greece were fumbled as the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank all tried to promote their own agendas with little regard for the lowly Greek citizen.

Happily the disclaimer appeared on the front page:

Keep Reading…

Pro-Euro German Finance Minister Now Having Second Thoughts?

Monday, 06 May 2013 12:00

This, at least, is the gist of the headline from the AP: “German who helped start euro now calls for its end.” The AP article that backed it up was just four paragraphs long and led me to think: this guy has awakened to reality! He’s been converted to free market principles! Hallelujah!

Even Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the conservative writer for the liberal Telegraph, seemed to buy the line, saying

Keep Reading…

Page 1 of 4

1
2
…
4
Next