Germany

It is not being widely discussed, but we suspect the wage settlement in Germany over the weekend is an important development. The agreement that covers 765k state government workers in Germany, represented by Verdi, reached a two-year deal…

Europe is in recession right now, but the US is in a weak but fairly long-lived economic recovery. The difference in economic fortunes owes entirely to differing policy responses in both regions. In Europe, the economic paradigm has…

The ball got rolling in Asia as China's official manufacturing PMI eased to 50.1 from 50.4 in January. The details were poor, even if not that surprising after the HSBC measure. New orders fell to 50.1 from 51.6 and new export orders fell…

France had pinned its hope that threat to EMU would be turned back before the wolf came it its door. The Italian political tensions come at the poor time for France. Its ability to absorb shocks is terribly constrained. Recall what has…

According to Angela Merkel, speaking in the German city of Mainz in mid February, European countries struggling with the fallout of the euro-area debt crisis have much to learn from East Germany’s experience with economic overhaul…

It has been some time now since the ECB turned to monetisation to deal with its sovereign debt crisis. At the time, the Germans were out in full force attempting to stop the train of events and keep the ECB out of the political economy.…

Trade data for the US, Germany, Japan and China were released earlier today. While the US, Germany and China had robust export growth that caused their surpluses to swell, Japan's numbers showed weakness despite the recent drop in the value…

The much-touted European banking union, designed to separate country and banking risk seen as the nexus around which the sovereign debt crisis has moved, looks weak.

Once again some analysts in Europe question the potency of the so-called currency wars launched by Japan and the US. The euro-yen currency cross has had an unprecedented rally, changing the export landscape where Japan and Europe…

French President Francois Hollande delivered an impassioned speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg today decrying the strength and volatility of the euro exchange rate. This was the best indication that Hollande is feeling…