Blog entry | May 20, 2012 - 10:22pm
On 18 May, oil prices slipped below $107 a barrel and hit a 2012 low as fears that Greece would leave the euro and a downgrade of 16 Spanish banks by Moody's increased the possibility of a major impact on growth and slower oil demand.
On 18 May, oil prices slipped below $107 a barrel and hit a 2012 low as fears that Greece would leave the euro and a downgrade of 16 Spanish banks by Moody's increased the possibility of a major impact on growth and slower oil demand.
Blog entry | May 20, 2012 - 10:26pm
Last week, on Europe Day, when the eurocrats and the hangers on mark the glory of our eternal, precious union, Herman Van Rompuy announced that the financial crisis was essentially over and everyone would be back in growth by the end of the year.
I said at the time that history has not been kind to European leaders who say ‘it’ll all be over by Christmas’. It only took a few days for history to slap the Council President in the face, although there is no sign that reality has in any way impacted on our Chief Monk.
Article | May 18, 2012 - 1:12pm
The rating agency Moody's downgraded today, Friday 18 May, 16 Spanish banks, as it did yesterday for 24 Italian lenders.
Earlier on the agency had downgraded four regions of Spain. Moody's cut down the grade of some of those Spanish banks by three notches. The agency said that this was due the the increasing danger of the Spanish economy entering in a recession and also because of the limited character of the measures the Madrid government introduced to support the country's ailing banking industry.
Article | May 17, 2012 - 2:49pm
It's long been reported that there are many uses of olive oil. As a foodstuff it has a high concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids, which studies show promote "good" cholesterol (HDL) while lowering "bad" cholesterol (LDL), that it is beneficial for hair, soothes ulcers, prevents gallstones, and the list goes on. However, new research has revealed that the olive tree can be used for yet another thing.
Article | May 17, 2012 - 9:06am
The Ecofin council of the European Union, comprising the 27 ministers of finance have approved a huge package of new rules regulating the business environment in which operate 8,300 banks.
The Ecofin council of the European Union, comprising the 27 ministers of finance have approved a huge package of new rules regulating the business environment in which operate 8,300 banks.
Article | May 17, 2012 - 3:14pm
The fulfilled promise of Hollande for a gender-balanced cabinet with 17 women out of 34 ministers inspired AFP to analyse the ratio between men and women also in the governments of other European states.
The fulfilled promise of Hollande for a gender-balanced cabinet with 17 women out of 34 ministers inspired AFP to analyse the ratio between men and women also in the governments of other European states.
Article | May 16, 2012 - 3:23pm
There are many things that users can do on the internet, and defend causes or starting a petition is now one more action to add to this list. Change.org, an online petition site, allows citizens all over the world to propose their initiatives against unfair situations.
Ben Rattray, that founded Change.org in 2007, was included in the 2012 Time 100 list of the world's most influential people and listed in BusinessWeek as one of America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs of 2011
Article | May 16, 2012 - 3:55pm
Article | May 16, 2012 - 4:51pm
Tomorrow, 17 May, is the Internet Day. México, Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Uruguay and other countries, such as France, want to show what new technologies can offer to improve citizen's standard of life.
This celebration started on 25 October 2005, after the Internet Users Association from Spain suggested the United Nations, in the Information Society Summit in Tunis, to set the 17 May as the Information Society World Day.
Article | May 13, 2012 - 11:16pm
The Spanish government last week was expectedly critical over Bolivia's nationalisation of a Spanish-owned electric power company but the tone was comparatively softer than that was against the Argentine government’s take over of the Spanish firm Repsol's majority stake in the energy company YPF.
The Spanish government last week was expectedly critical over Bolivia's nationalisation of a Spanish-owned electric power company but the tone was comparatively softer than that was against the Argentine government’s take over of the Spanish firm Repsol's majority stake in the energy company YPF.
Article | May 8, 2012 - 3:43pm
The European Commission announced today the results of the latest report on product safety. The three most active countries in detecting and notifying new dangerous products, and in ensuring appropriate follow-up actions, were Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary.
The European Commission announced today the results of the latest report on product safety.
The 2011 annual report concludes that due to the increasing effectiveness of the Community Rapid Information System for non-food products (RAPEX), dangerous products in the EU market were detected earlier, more effectively and withdrawn much faster.
Blog entry | May 6, 2012 - 11:09pm
Whatever the outcome of the French and the Greek elections on 6 May, the Eurozone will never be the same as before. In both those elections there will be a message sent also to Brussels and Berlin, and even Washington and New York as well. In some respects on election night, Athens may emit a much louder and clearer braodcast than Paris.
Article | May 6, 2012 - 10:57pm
The Spanish government would not pump-in any taxpayer money into the creation of a so-called bad bank which would relieve the banking sector from their toxic assets, local reports said last week citing anonymous official sources at the Spanish economy ministry.
The Spanish government would not pump-in any taxpayer money into the creation of a so-called bad bank which would relieve the banking sector from their toxic assets, local reports said last week citing anonymous official sources at the Spanish economy ministry.
Article | May 4, 2012 - 2:16pm
The first day of May was up until recently the day workers and their representatives, the Trade Unions, celebrated as their own: the day to celebrate labourers. This year, however, it was high-jacked in France, falling, as it did, only days before the second round of the presidential elections.
Article | May 2, 2012 - 10:02pm
A few days after Argentina's decision to take over a subsidiary of Spain's oil giant Repsol, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced the nationalisation of a Spanish company - Transportadora de Electricidad SA (TDE) - as a part of broader movements to regain ownership of Bolivia’s natural resources and basic services.
Article | May 2, 2012 - 12:42pm
The German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schaeuble, after meeting in Berlin with his Spanish counterpart, Luis de Guindos, at the beginning of this week, said that the European Union has to produce policies favouring growth and stressed the role the European Investment Bank can play in mobilising new investments in infrastructures.
The German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schaeuble, after meeting in Berlin with his Spanish counterpart, Luis de Guindos, at the beginning of this week, said that the European Union has to produce policies favouring growth and stressed the role the European Investment Bank can play in mobilising new investments in infrastructures.
Article | April 30, 2012 - 2:27pm
This week's issue of New Europe newspaper carries an article entitled “Eurozone to add growth in its strategy”. Our printed twin says, “The Eurozone seems to be preparing for nothing less than a full change of course in its strategy in an effort to counter its sovereign debt crisis...attempting to brake the present vicious cycle of deficits and recession and return to a growth path”.
Article | April 30, 2012 - 10:03pm
On 30 April, Spain's National Statistics Institute confirmed that the country's economy has plunged into a double-dip recession, in the latest blow to the eurozone economy.
The contraction announced on April 30, follows a 0.3 per cent decline in the final quarter of last year. This is Spain's second recession in three years.
Article | April 27, 2012 - 2:08pm
The Eurozone seems to be preparing for nothing less than a full change of course in its strategy in an effort to counter its sovereign debt crisis.
The Eurozone seems to be preparing for nothing less than a full change of course in its strategy in an effort to counter its sovereign debt crisis. The reason for this is that the currently applied severe fiscal diet imposed not only to 'sinner' countries like Greece, Portugal. Ireland and Spain, but to surplus member states it is leading to a deepening recession, a prospect that may send the entire world to a new period of negative growth, if not a new round of financial meltdowns.
Article | April 27, 2012 - 11:19am
The first round of the French presidential elections happened to coincide with the demise of the right wing minority government in the Netherlands. Of course, there is no direct link between the two; French people do not vote in the Netherlands, and the Dutch unfortunately do not understand French any more since it was scrapped from the obligatory secondary school curriculum a generation ago, but still the two events may be fruits from the same tree. A wind of change is picking up momentum in Europe.
The first round of the French presidential elections happened to coincide with the demise of the right wing minority government in the Netherlands. Of course, there is no direct link between the two; French people do not vote in the Netherlands, and the Dutch unfortunately do not understand French any more since it was scrapped from the obligatory secondary school curriculum a generation ago, but still the two events may be fruits from the same tree. A wind of change is picking up momentum in Europe.
Article | April 26, 2012 - 3:20pm
Italy's treasury was forced to pay today, 26 April, much higher interest rates for a T-bills auction.
Italy's treasury was forced to pay today, 26 April, much higher interest rates for a T-bills auction.
The cost reached the levels of a similar auction in January 2012 when the Eurozone was under exceptional pressures in capital markets. At that time the second Greek crisis had reached its apex and Italy and Spain ware suffering from devastating contagion.
Article | April 25, 2012 - 2:28pm
It is not only François Hollande who asks for a new growth chapter in the strategy to counter the Eurozone's problems.
One after the other, major financial organisations and top economists, actively engaged in the efforts to counter the Eurozone's debt crisis, now seem to advocate more growth and centripetal oriented policy proposals to restore growth in Eurozone and not only in Germany.
Article | April 24, 2012 - 1:18pm
Inspired by the classical Hollywood western movie, a group of women from the Spanish capital Madrid arrived to a small town determined to save it from the doom. Lack of eligible women in the small town of Candeleda in Castilla y León region drastically reduced the town's population, something that ladies from the capital just could not allow.
Arrival of bachelorettes from Madrid reminded of a scene from the 1951 western “Westward the Women”, where women were brought in by carriages to entertain lonesome cowboys and bring them some love.
Article | April 24, 2012 - 11:38am
Governments and public authorities are not doing enough to counter the current wave of discrimination against Muslims in Europe, a new report has found.
Governments and public authorities are not doing enough to counter the current wave of discrimination against Muslims in Europe, a new report has found.
Article | April 22, 2012 - 10:21pm
On 17 April, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was "seriously disappointed" by Argentina's decision to take over the Argentine unit of oil major Repsol and warned Buenos Aires that "this creates an uncertainty which is not helpful to our economic relations and to the economy as a whole".
