The take-up by the eurozone banks of €489bn from the European Central Bank (ECB) ought to be good news as a sign that the ECB is now at last, having refused to do so in 2011, ensuring eurozone banks can fund themselves adequately next year. The ECB believes they will need €720bn of loans in […]
Posts Tagged ‘Italy’
Not much grand about this EU bargain
Dec 8th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The praeternatural calm that has descended on the financial markets after Merkel-Sarkozy declared a ‘comprehensive’ bargain on Monday is unlikely to survive the Friday summit as the details sink in about what is involved, and even more about what is left out. Meanwhile back in Britain there is sound and fury from the Tory Right […]
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Greece, Italy: now markets choose prime ministers
Nov 18th, 2011 by David Osler.I am not entitled to vote in either Greece or Italy; even if I were, I would not support either George Papandreou or Silvio Berlusconi, anyway. In the normal run of events, I would greet their departure from office with Zen-like equanimity. But what we have seen in the last week or so is not the […]
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Farewell to European democracy?
Nov 10th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.So the honest and decent Papandreou is forced out because he wanted to give the Greek people, who would bear the weight of the cutbacks, a chance to express whether they accepted them, however reluctantly, or whether they would take the alternative option of a default and leaving the euro. The corrupt and despicable Berlusconi […]
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Italians deserve better than Berlusconi
Nov 8th, 2011 by David Osler.It is fortunate indeed for New Labourite lawyer David Mills that he took a £400,000 bung from Silvio Berlusconi in 1999 rather than 2000. Were it not for Italy’s equivalent of the statute of limitations, he would now be around a quarter of the way through a four year jail term in whatever qualifies as […]
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The relation of profits and ‘austerity’
Oct 27th, 2011 by Michael Burke.In what may be an important development the Financial Times reports that, in return for accepting much larger ‘haircuts’ (imposed losses on the value of the bonds they own) bondholders are demanding that there must be a growth strategy for Greece. In a piece headlined ‘Bondholders Demand Greek Growth Plan’ the paper quotes the Managing Director and chief […]
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There’s no avoiding doom for the Eurozone now
Oct 5th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The 3-notch downgrade of Italy’s credit rating by Moody’s. The near-collapse of the French-Belgian bank Dexia despite the stress tests it passed only 3 months ago. The growing consensus that only a 50% haircut imposed on investors in Greek debt can save the country from insolvency. The drastic fall in share prices in the UK, […]
