IMFs Forecast Mistakes are not Trivial

The storm that threatens the global economy has been raging ever since the toxic assets crisis started five long years ago. That crisis has not ended, or receded, but transformed into multiple crises: from fiscal deficit and sovereign debt to poverty,...

Dark Clouds over the Global Economy

By Raul de Sagastizabal The downgrade of American bonds along with the problems of the European over-indebtedness increases the fear of a recession or a sharp slowdown in the global economy. Much of the market turmoil responds to the fear of investors,...

What is Hot Money?

By Raul de Sagastizabal Hot money is the “purely speculative money,” which enters into an economy or an economic sector in order to earn a short-term and/or huge profit and leave quickly, as long as it finds more profit elsewhere. Hot money refers...

Euro Stands Only 20% Chance of Survival

According to a recently released prediction by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, the Euro only stands a 20 per cent change of surviving the next decade. “If the euro doesn’t break up, this could be the year when it weakens substantially...

Tackling Financial Exclusion in Europe

The term financial exclusion was first coined in 1993 by geographers studying the impact bank closures had on those left unable to access basic banking services. During the 1990s there was a significant increase in research focusing on people experiencing...

Putin Proposes Trade-Free Zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok

In a commentary published in Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed a stronger integration of economic ties between the European Union and Russia that would ideally lead to establishing a free-trade zone stretching...

As Ireland Gets Rescued, All Eyes on Portugal and Spain, Who’s Next to Collapse?

As the Irish banks are due to be rescued with up to 100,000 million euros in bailout funds, economists, investors and financial experts are turning their eyes on Portugal and Spain, asking “Who’s next?” An article in the Independent...

Ireland Confirms Billion-Euro Bailout Plea

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen confirmed Sunday that his country requested financial assistance, which has received the approval of European Union Finance Ministers as well as the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Didier Reynders, Belgium Finance Minister...

The Chinese Dragon Pounces on Europe

German indignation at China’s audacious economic penetration of Europe has been dismissed as sour grapes by Zhang Zugian, a researcher with the Chinese Association of European Studies. He says the European Union’s presumption of trade exclusivity...

Europe, The Giant Awakes

In a world of conflicting interests it is hardly surprising that we are bewildered by contradictory information. Nations opposed to the euro-zone, such as Britain and the United States, are desperate to talk up their own currencies: Being economical...