Italy’s sovereign debt crisis has been overshadowed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s reluctant promise to resign after the country’s parliament made clear he no longer commanded a majority. Italy…
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi appears set to become the largest political casualty so far of the Eurozone’s continuing inability to resolve its massive sovereign debt problems. Berlusconi, who…
During protests in Rome last month, as groups of hooded protesters clashed with the police, set cars on fire, and smashed bank windows around the Piazza San Giovanni, two large speakers installed on a…
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has taken the bold step of planning a referendum on the country’s EU-imposed austerity measures, in a bid to claim a mandate for his efforts to avoid a default on…
Few would begrudge New Zealanders revelling in their rugby World Cup success. After two major disasters in the form of the Christchurch earthquake and the Greymouth coal mine explosion, some morale-raising…
As the Eurozone trembles at the prospect of Greece defaulting on its debt, the winds of change are at work at the European Central Bank (ECB). ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet will step down in November…
Momentum is building behind the global campaign to impose a tax on transactions in financial markets, with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso announcing plans to introduce the measure as…
Will Greece default and exit the Eurozone? The best-case scenario is a managed, orderly, partial default with the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), a fund created in 2010 to manage Eurozone…
Global markets have tumbled again this week, following the downgrading of Italy’s debt rating and a series of negative comments from leaders of the world’s financial institutions. International Monetary…
Global markets look set for a rough week amid new concerns that Greece could default on its massive debt. The Australian share market has spent most of the day down 3% after reports that Germany could…
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have announced a plan to impose a financial transactions tax (FTT) for the Eurozone, as part of an effort stem the bloc’s worsening…
The dramatic falls in share prices of Greek debt-laden French banks overnight highlights just how closely tied the current market chaos is to the world’s worsening debt woes. Market crashes like that of…
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s reassurance to his parliamentary colleagues during a speech on Wednesday did little allay about fears of a crisis in Eurozone’s third-biggest economy. The Italian…
As the political stand-off around the US debt crisis looks set to continue into the weekend, US President Barack Obama is being tested whether he has the courage to stand his ground. Last week the President…
I rang some people at big banks who do liquidity and balance-sheet management to see how they are preparing for the August 2 deadline for US debt funding. They seemed remarkably sanguine. The feeling is…
This year’s Economic Society of Australia conference saw a range of strong views expressed on what Australian policy makers have managed to get broadly right (carbon tax – hurrah!) and wrong (NBN – boo…
European leaders signed off on a second, 109 billion euro bailout for Greece overnight, while also establishing what has been described as an “infant monetary fund” to intervene if the bloc’s sovereign…
As Margaret Thatcher’s trade minister in the 1980s, Norman Tebbit devoted much of his time to dealing with the European Community – the precursor to the European Union. Routinely, at meetings in Brussels…
As international markets react to the unrest in Greece amid fears of contagion, mass protests have also continued in fellow European Union member country, Spain. This protest movement, called the “indignant…
Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece’s sovereign debt rating by three notches on Monday, reflecting its view that it would be next to impossible to imagine a scenario where the country could restructure…