French President Nicolas Sarkozy made his long-anticipated re-election bid announcement Wednesday night and has some good news to jump-start his campaign. On Wednesday morning, figures for the fourth quarter of 2011 showed that …
debt crisis
The Anti-Sarkozy: How French Socialist Presidential Candidate François Hollande Would Lead
The Socialist front runner in France’s current presidential campaign promises big changes if he wins elections a bit over two months away. Yet not only does François Hollande remain rather vague about just how he’d do things …
Europe’s Soccer Clubs: The Continent’s Other Looming Debt Crisis
Euro zone governments aren’t the only entities seriously needing to get their debt levels down these days. Information revealed this past week showed Europe’s leading soccer clubs are similarly spending their way into a …
“It's not great, but it's legal.”
Sarkozy Hopes To Lift Grim Re-Election Odds with Unexpected Reform Drive
For readers following the up-hill re-election efforts ofFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy, I’d like to point out a couple of good pieces on the “social summit” the Elysée is hosting Wednesday in its attempts to push through …
For Now, the Eurozone and the Markets Pooh-pooh the Downgrades. But the Long-Term Looms
Modestly positive trading on European stock markets Monday morning appeared to confirm what euro zone leaders had predicted for weeks: that the decision Friday by Standard & Poor’s to cut the credit rating of nine European …
Sarkozy’s Tobin Tax Push: Wooing French Voters and Annoying E.U. Leaders
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has a knack of vexing his European partners—and he’s demonstrated that talent again with his pledge to unilaterally impose a so-called “Tobin Tax” on financial market transactions in France if …
Yesterday’s Gone: Euro Optimism Goes Flat and Here Comes 2012
As has become common during the nearly two years of Europe’s escalating debt crisis, reasons for guarded optimism that surfaced this week are being replaced with concern and doubt. In the wake of last week’s uplifting news …
The French on a Credit Downgrade Threat: Pick on Britain
Tis the season—for painful downgrades by credit agencies that is, as Thursday’s move by Fitch targeting six of the world’s largest banks again shows. And indeed, because such action is now so common, the big question …
As the Crisis Refuses to Calm, Scenarios of Euro Collapse Appear
Despite the distracting political drama over the UK’s outlier rejection at last week’s European Union agreement on fiscal and budgetary coordination, it’s now become clear that main objective of the collective effort–to ensure …
Not So Great, Britain: After E.U. Summit, U.K. Drifts Toward Isolationism
“Mommy, daddy, where were you when Britain left Europe?” David Cameron’s deployment in the early hours of Dec. 9 of the British veto over a Franco-German plan to save the euro will be seen as a pivotal moment by future …
Euro Treaty Takes Shape, But Without Britain
Despite their much-anticipated announcement early Friday of a crucial pact to confront Europe’s surging debt crisis, the leaders who agreed to the deal might want to consider re-naming their mutual club the European Disunion all the same. Because while the main focus of the accord was supposed to be the sweeping debt-reduction rules to …
Crunch Time for the Euro and Europe: Taking Note of the Elephant
Elephant, meet room.
Doubt and despair returned to Europe by Tuesday despite positive reaction a day earlier to the French-German proposals to save the teetering euro. The reason? The pachyderm in the room that markets see all …