Latest posts
How Europe Can Retain the IMF
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Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s likely replacement as managing director of the International Monetary fund by Christine Lagarde, another French Finance Minister, has highlighted an awkward reality – Europe’s predominance over the world’s foremos...
Why a European at the IMF?
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After initial excitement that the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn might lead to an emerging market candidate to follow him as head of the IMF, Europe has placed its seal firmly upon a successor – Strauss-Kahn’s own distant replacement as Fr...
On Strauss-Kahn’s Arrest
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The blogosphere is abuzz with the news that yesterday afternoon, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund a and leading candidate for the French Presidency, was arrested in New York on charges of sexual assault...
Japanese Resilience, Western Panic
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While the Japanese have been doing their best to overcome one of the worst natural disasters of their history, they have received little help from the west, which seems merely intent on sowing panic and hysteria. EU Commissioner Gunther Oettinger win...
Europe’s Arabian Reflection
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Amidst the commentary on the incredible protests breaking across the capitals of the Middle East, one of the most common reactions is that of suprise; European commentators seem genuinely startled to discover, that on their southern frontier there ar...
Predictions for 2010 (Revisited)
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Around this time last year, I did something that commentators are frequently advised not to do: I made predictions of how events in Europe would unfold in 2010. As a year has now passed, it is time to take a look back and briefly take stock of how t...
Is Germany Acting Like a Hedge Fund?
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In recent years, the German government has been very keen on attacking hedge funds. It all started in 2005 with Müntefering’s “locusts” diatribe, and the current Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has kept up the act, most recent...
On Leadership
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I was recently sent an article written by Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former candidate for President of the European Council, which includes a couple of interesting comments on the vexed topic of Europe’s leadership – or lack thereof. Among the...
The Rise and Rise of Nationalism
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Something of a controversy was stirred two weeks ago, when Charles Kupchan declared in a Washington Post editorial that Europe was ‘dying’ of nationalism. His argument earned a surprise rebuke from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, wh...
Democratic Deficit or Surfeit?
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Does Europe need more democracy or less? In the late-18th to mid-19th century, the grand intellectuals of the era, such as Voltaire and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, also felt that Europe needed to overhaul its creaking system of governance. However...
“Why Do They Hate Us?”
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Shortly after September 11th, a frequent refrain among the American commentariat was: “why do they hate us?” Americans had always seen themselves as a benevolent power, and found themselves confused by the sight of jubilant crowds in Gaza...
Britain Entering the Twilight Zone
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In recent weeks, something odd has happened in British politics — something that has the potential to significantly transform the way the country relates to the European Union in the years to come. And yet, nobody seems to have noticed it: or i...
The Euro is Still a Better Reserve Currency
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The euro has fallen 12 per cent against the dollar since December, leading some to question the euro’s value as a global reserve currency. Yet as the following chart from Clemens Kownatzki shows, such fears are overblown. The data show the eur...
What the Eurozone Can Learn from Africa
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Among the torrent of cliches about Greek dramas, tragedies and trojan horses that have filled the business pages in recent weeks, there has been no shortage of apokálypsis and huperballein. Neither apocalypse nor hyperbole are in short supply, for e...
Predictions for 2010
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It is that time of the year again – the time that pundits like to gaze into their crystal ball and divine a few predictions for the year to come. Never one to be left out, let me offer a few here. • First, for the first year since 2005, the...
Beware Greeks Bearing Gilts
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Crisis, what crisis? While reviewing some of the EU’s 2009 economic projections I was startled to note that this year, while more fiscally retentive states such as Germany and the Netherlands will contract by 5 and 4.5 per cent, Greece is on co...
The Commentariat and Ashton
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The name of Herman Van Rompuy has been bandied around corridors, newspaper columns, and late-night phone calls for some weeks now, such that his appointment last week brought little surprise – if a few sighs of disappointment. The real shocker...
The Growing Role of the EIB
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Located in sleepy Luxembourg City, the European Investment Bank is one of the most under-reported institutions of the European Union. I have heard even seasoned Brussels hacks confuse it with its better-known sister 185km further to the east, the Eur...
Could the European Parliament Derail ‘Global Europe’?
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This week brings a step forward for the EU’s Global Europe strategy: the initialling of the Free Trade Agreement with Korea, which will take place on Thursday. The completion of the EU-Korea FTA has excited a great deal more interest in Korea t...
Barroso and the Hatoyama Controversy
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A controversial essay by incoming Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama was welcomed in a personal letter yesterday by José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, as representing ‘the converging views between your vision for Ja...
