peripherals

jyrki katainen

Olé, Katainen

MADRID | The Corner | New Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Jyrki Katainen –Finnish, as his predecessor Olli Rehn- has pledged pure orthodoxy about the European Stability Pact. In an interview with German daily Die Welt, Finland’s former Prime Minister and now one of the most powerful men in the EU ruled out speculations about creative interpretations of the fiscal framework. Mr Katainen is the same who, during the worst moment of the crisis (Aug 2012), asked Greece and Spain for collateral in exchange for aid and reckoned that some peripherals were introducing major structural reforms that were “simply not being recognized in the market.”


Baltic boom

The Baltic Boom: there is life after austerity

MADRID | By Antonio Sánchez-Gijón at CapitalMadrid | On May 9 the European Union will deliver Charlemagne Prize to Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaite. The idea is not to reward her as a former EC Commissioner, but as the person who embodies the success of three small countries of Northern Europe out of their deep economic crisis in two years. While the populations of the Mediterranean Europe and France are raised in arms against austerity policies imposed from Brussels and Frankfurt to exit the stagnation and save the euro, two European Baltic nations are looking forward to joining the common currency.


o3817

Listen, Bundesbank: it is not our imbalance, it’s the German surplus

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | The Bundesbank has protested for the bulk of credit on the other central banks of the euro zone. The amount credited is €500 billion. The German Central Bank now worries about the risk of default, and suggests that these assets must be collateralised by real assets from the countries that have generated them. As Wolfgang Munchau says, this display of arrogance is telling, indeed. These accrued debts/credits…


No Picture

Spanish Treasury seduces investors, yields fall under 1%

By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | The Spanish Treasury keeps reducing the yield of its public auctions and demand keeps increasing: 5.9 times the offer (almost €15bn). Just a few hours after Europe has given the green light to Greece’s rescue package, the Spanish Treasury has sold €2,5bn –the maximum expected, at 3 and 6 months bills, and thus, it has reached the high end of the target range. Specifically, it…


No Picture

Sarkozy and Barclays: what a happy coincidence over Spain

At The Corner, we have a noticeable penchant for mixing news from the bright side, so we couldn’t let pass this occasion in which one of the core-Europe main actors and some British-based bank analysts have had warm opinions on the state of the Spanish economy (emphasis is ours.) According to this piece of reporting from the best-seller Spanish newspaper El País, at the end of the European Council meeting, French president…