Public statements made by the leaders of Canada, Mexico, the UK, France, Germany, and other EU countries, to protest against Donald Trump’s decision imposing tariffs on aluminium and steel imported to the United States from these countries were predictable. As are the retaliatory measures envisaged by these countries. But this has not prevented the Trump […]
Category: Business Intelligence
Habemus Governum. It took months to reach an agreement between the competing “anti-system” parties that have emerged from the last Italian general elections, the M5S and the Lega, and to get the approval stamp of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the proposed Cabinet members, which was effectively achieved after a reshuffle of the […]
Keynote speech pronounced at the AJ NEWS Asia Pacific Financial Forum in Seoul, Republic of Korea, March 2018. The recent plan announced by US President Donald Trump, to increase tariffs on a broad range of Chinese products exported to the United States, for up to USD 60 billion, and the counterveiling measures announced by Beijing, […]
The picture is reassuring. The Ministers of Finance of the twenty largest economies in the world, together with the Managing Director of the IMF, display a perfunctory smile. But despite this reassuring impression, the G20 Finance Ministers meeting that was held in Baden Baden, in Germany, marks the end of an era. It signals a […]
It is one of the most interesting paradoxes of our world. The European Union has a population of almost half a billion inhabitants, spanned across more than two dozens of distinct political constituencies, and it boasts the largest economy and consumption market in the world. Yet it is entirely devoid of any true state-like sovereignty. […]
Why the backlash against Beijing? François Picard’s panel pays close attention to the terms and conditions attached to the $20bn in loans pledged by China’s new president to Africa, and to the true pros and cons of a China-Africa relationship that continues to grow. Solange GUO CHATELARD. Associate at the Max Planck Institute […]
The election of the Socialist François Hollande to the Presidency of the French Republic and the massive rejection of the mainstream pro-austerity political parties by the Greek electorate are clear signs that Europe is reconsidering growth over austerity. Indeed, the “austerity and nothing but austerity” mantra, championed by German chancellor Angela Merkel and her allies, failed to impress grassroots European citizens […]
Here we are once again. German officials are again rebuking any calls to steer Europe out of the deflationary cycle that would slowly but surely break it havoc. We have heard the German argument times and times again. In substance, Germans say they don’t want to pay for the profligate Greek, Spanish and their likes […]