Tag Archives: Germany

Spaniards and Italians Will Never Accept Greece’s Fate

The markets have been transfixed by the ECB’s plan for unlimited purchases of bonds - or outright monetary transactions, as they are to be called. But the ECB’s implicit deal with Germany, to link any bond purchases to the European rescue funds’ strict fiscal conditions, has tied its hands. Saving the euro now depends on proud nations like Spain and Italy being willing to kowtow to their new masters in Berlin. Judging by the mood of the Spanish people, it’s more likely that Spain will call Germany’s bluff and threaten to leave the euro forthwith, unless it is given unconditional support.
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Germany’s Homemade Energy Crisis Threatens its Industrial Base

Unable to make up for the shortfall in electricity as it phases out nuclear power and boosts its dependency on wind and solar power, Germany now faces an energy crisis of its own making. It will only be a matter of time before the nuclear phase and its ‘energy revolution’ are abandoned, because jobs are now clearly threatened.
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Is Spain’s Check in the Mail?

It’s a big mystery where Spain will get the money for its so-called bailout, given how urgently its banks need a life supporting transfusion. The European Financial Stability Facility or the European Stability Mechanism are mooted, but no-one yet knows which Spain will have to rely on. My suspicion is that the check is “in the mail.”
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The Game is Up for the Commodity Super-Cycle as the Yo-Yo Years Begin

If a blizzard of awful Chinese economic data isn’t enough to convince you that China is heading into a deflationary slump and the commodity “super-cycle” is coming to an end, then the deepening crisis in the euro-zone should be. That’s because not only will a massive reduction in foreign lending by European banks hurt investment in emerging markets, but supplier economies will be hit disproportionately, as they were post-Lehman.
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Germany’s Best Option is to Leave the Euro, Says JPMorgan

As the cost of a euro-zone break-up continues to rise exponentially, JPMorgan has concluded that Germany’s best option is to leave the euro. With German taxpayers outraged by the dangerous rise in credit risk resulting from a plethora of backdoor bail-out schemes, carrying on regardless now looks politically suicidal for Chancellor Merkel in the wake her party’s worst state election result in Nordrhein Westfallen since the second world war.
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Solar Power Has Been Totally Eclipsed by Gas

Generous solar subsidies were never going to survive in an age of austerity and cheap natural gas. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Germany. Solar energy was supposed to herald a new age of clean energy, and provide thousands of green jobs, but not a single solar manufacturer is expected to survive there. With governments elsewhere, like Italy, also ending their tax payer funded bonanzas, the industry is facing total collapse, globally.
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Looming Electricity Shortages are Killing Jobs in Britain

Disadvantaged by carbon emissions regulations, the developed world is losing jobs to the developing world at an alarming rate. But nowhere is investment more threatened by energy policy than in Britain, the only country in the world which is committed to closing down virtually all of its economy, so that it can cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050.
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Germany’s Approaching Götterdämmerung

Germany has been viewed as a safe haven by investors, until now. After all, its export sector has been booming. But investors are beginning to bet against Germany and its manufacturing firms, as a break-up of the euro-zone creeps ever closer. This is because the cost of failure for Germany is growing fast, and the Bundesbank may be trying to force the government’s hand before it digs itself a deeper hole.
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The West’s Manufacturing Continues to Pay for Green Gesture Politics

The true economic cost of Western government’s obsession with fighting global warming is becoming increasingly apparent. News that a fifth of the UK’s soaring energy bills now consist of hidden environmental subsidies has brought home the cost of Britain’s economically suicidal commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% within 40 years. It can’t be long before there is a political backlash from consumers and industry against the West's green gesture politics.
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Eurozone Governments May Need To Bail Out Municipalities

A lot has already been written about the risk to municipal bond holders in the U.S., as a growing number of states face severe fiscal problems. But local government debt is an even bigger threat in Europe - where it could force governments to assume the debt, putting further pressure on sovereign bond spreads.
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