Germany

Backloaded austerity is the defining paradigm at work in Europe right now. Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has called for this paradigm to be bolstered by fiscal stimulus incentives as a quid pro quo for structural reform. I believe he…

The German election and the US debt ceiling crisis are the two political events dominating the economic headlines - and for good reason; these two events could have potentially big consequences on the regional and global economy. In the…

Summary: The German elections were a resounding victory for German chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, she must still broker an agreement for a coalition government and this will change the politics of Germany and Europe. Below are my…

The problem in a nutshell is that the U.S. is the world's reserve currency. And so, other countries are forced to adhere to Fed dictates in a liquidity crisis because everyone is hoarding dollars, trying to maintain their supply of…

The center-left could unseat Merkel, but its sectarian tendencies make it unlikely. The SPD and Greens have refused to consider the Linke (Left) party as a coalition member. The Left's agenda, which is anti-NATO and anti-EU, is…

In the past two weeks, a lot has happened in Europe. I would say the general tenor of the news flow has been downbeat. Nevertheless, I am mostly positive on Europe. I don't see an imminent eurozone breakup, nor do I see a further dip into…

Still contracting but at a reduced pace. Germany a bit worse and other up a bit may show the squeeze has caused a bit of a shift from Germany to other members as the pie continues to shrink?In any case, a reduced pace of deterioration does…

The data flow out of Europe today is pretty bad. German factories orders missed and unemployment rose to record levels in France and Greece. Meanwhile the IMF admitted that Greece's delayed debt restructuring "provided a window for private…

As I have ben predicting here for months, the problems in individual large European economies have become to large to bear for the prevailing European policy mix. Therefore, today, in releasing the next year's country specifici…

Michael Pettis had a very good post out yesterday that focused on the sectoral balances within and across eurozone countries which I recommend. His point is that excess German savings driven by wage suppression was behind macro imbalances…