In Europe

No Picture

Is austerity making things worse?

NEW YORK | It seems that there is already a critical mass of economists suggesting that the whole austerity passion that all of a sudden possessed world leaders is just the wrong passion. In this Monday CNN’s interview, Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stieglitz said he thinks the US government has to go away from austerity and go for a growth strategy. The same applies to Greece: if they continue to…


No Picture

Ms Lagarde is right (even though the ECB would rather turn a blind eye)

By Miguel Navascués, in Madrid | There has always been tension between the IMF and those countries under its analysis over the numbers in the fund’s economic forecasts. But this time the battle between the IMF’s Ms Lagarde and the European authorities has been set over valuations of sovereign bonds held by the banks. According to Lagarde, were the bonds in the European banks’ portfolios to be valued at their current market price……