As hard as it seems to believe, the IMF is shaping up as a less bad actor in the continuing Greece austerity saga. Germany finance minister Wolfgang Schauble, by contrast, seems emboldened by Merkel’s fallen stature, which couldn’t come at a worse time for Greece.
Read more...The narrative of Russian planes buzzing a US destroyer is not as simple as it first appeared in the press….
Read more...It appears that Erdogan never got the memo: if you are going to be in politics, you need to have a thick skin.
Read more...With friends like Merkel’s, who needs enemies?
Read more...Yves here. I’m leery of reinforcing the “competitiveness” meme, since it’s based on the false premise that all countries can be exporters. But this article nevertheless makes important observations about Eurozone structural flaws.
Read more...The Fed is suddenly looking very nervous, and by contrast, the Europeans don’t seem anywhere nervous enough on the banking front.
Read more...How official statistics exaggerate Ireland’s performance, largely due to its status as a tax haven/offshore financial center.
Read more...On how economic growth models constrain policy debates and choices among Eurocrats, and why that is no accident.
Read more...Craig Murray keeps jumping the gun with his panamapapers pieces
Read more...Accusations by a Maltese political leader that Malta and Italy engaged in an oil-for-refugees swap has gotten legalistic responses.
Read more...The economic consequences of leaving the EU are at the heart of the Brexit debate. This column studies how changes in trade and fiscal transfers to the EU following Brexit would affect living standards in the UK. Across a range of scenarios, Brexit leads to lower income per capita, but the magnitude of the loss depends on what trade policies the UK adopts post-Brexit. To minimise the economic costs of Brexit, the UK would have to remain closely integrated into the Single Market.
Read more...A quick look at Breder Suasso, a New Zealand FSP with historic links to disreputable Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca
Read more...A new leak shows the IMF as the least bad actor of the Troika, which given its record as a neoliberal fist in third world countries, speaks volumes about European politics.
Read more...Explanations of the oil price decline are starting to acknowledge deflationary factors, even though the “d” word seems to be outside the pale .
Read more...An update on the Brexit referendum.
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