By James Stafford World markets appear to be hovering over a precipice as Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, slowdowns in India and China and further bank downgrades threaten to send stocks and commodities down even further. Falling oil and gas prices may offer some respite to consumers but are they enough to help the economy or […]
Maybe the solution to the Euro crisis cannot be found in politics, economic, finances, but in soccer. The Euro 2012, taking place this month of June in Poland and Ukraine, has offered the opium needed to the peoples of Europe. The final four counts Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Germany, meaning that at least one of […]
What to watch this weekend: the US golf open in San Francisco, the Euro 2012, the third game of the NBA Finals–Go Heat–or the latest Ridley Scott’s Prometheus? In fact the place to look and observe should be the Mediterranean. This weekend the world will be watching, especially in the US and Europe, the outcomes […]
What do Greek elections, doctors, Mali, and Obama all have in common? They’re all featured in our weekly must reads! Take a look at our recommendations below. “Greece Votes Itself in the Foot Again: The Rise of the Coalition of the Radical Left and the Demise of Europe” Foreign Affairs 12 June 2012 With the […]
Writing for both the Latin America blog and the Europe blog often has its advantages, and with so little attention being paid to Latin America at this past weekend’s G8 Summit at Camp David I am given some space to discuss how the global economy affects Latin America and other developing regions. The late 90s […]
No one ever said democracy is easy (well, if anyone did, they shouldn’t have). It offers the promise of freedom and the ability of people to choose who governs them. But constant vigilance is required to ensure democracy holds on, and prevents government from transforming into something more sinister. Democracy exists today in many parts […]
On May 6th, Greece will have the most important election of its post junta era. The sovereign debt crisis has humbled the country and the EU imposed austerity measures have angered the people. Unlike the Koskota scandal that led to the 1989 coalition government between Nea Dimocratia (ND) and the Communist Party, the stakes are […]
Considering the unpredictability of fear-driven markets the eurozone is not yet out of the woods. Neverthless, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to say that Europe has ridden out the worst of the storm. The piecemeal rescue process has not been pretty, but the sum of measures taken – the incremental build up of a firewall, the six pack, […]
The Greek dimension of the EU sovereign debt crisis is by now well known to all. Investor anxiety over excessive national debt throughout the EU led to demands for higher interest rates from several governments with greater debt levels and current account deficits. This in turn made it difficult for some governments to finance further […]
This year has been all about Greece. The troika, meaning the IMF, ECB, and Commission, have been working on containing the Greek crisis and limiting the contagion to the rest of the Union and ultimately to the global markets. The outcomes of the meeting over the weekend are a new bail-out plan and more ‘haircuts.’ […]
The Foreign Policy Association just released its latest annual National Opinion Ballot Report. Many issues have been tackled in this very interesting report, from the reconstruction of Haiti to the financial crisis to multilateralism to the Horn of Africa. Interestingly, one section was dedicated to Germany and its relevance to US interests. However none dealt […]
What makes a currency unique? The symbols, monuments, leaders figuring on the paper money, are exemplifications of the collective identity and shared culture. In the case of the Euro, as underlined by Gideon Rachman, the symbols on Euro’s coins and bills are fictitious. Last week, I ask one of my close friends, Dr. Maria Lorca-Susino, […]
When eminent scholar Walter Russell Mead tackles a subject he does not do it on the cheap. One of his latest long articles attempts to discern the current trajectory of Turkey’s foreign policy and he takes his readers through quite a ride. Mead, an American history, smoothly goes through modern Turkish history and then ties […]
In many places — here for instance — news outlets have conflated protests against austerity in Greece with European-wide discontent. This is a mistake. There is discontent in Europe, but what people are unhappy about differs from country to country. More importantly, the problems in these countries, even those on the debt-plagued periphery, do not […]
The premise of the whole Greek bailout exercise has rested on its economy improving. So far, it has not: Since the country’s first bailout last spring, unemployment has risen sharply and GDP ground to a halt. So after a year of bailout roulette, the head of Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund, said Sunday what […]