Greece vs Europe, Who Will Blink First? (video)

Greece vs. Europe: Who Will Blink First? -

Yannis Manuelides, a partner at Allen & Overy, discusses Germany and Greece drawing battle lines ahead of an emergency meeting of official creditors. He speaks with Bloomberg's Trish Regan on "Street Smart" February 10th.

Ann Pettifor on Europe (video)

Ann Pettifor on Europe -

To discuss the UK and the ECB, Erin sat down with Dr. Ann Pettifor – director of Prime Economics and author of “Just Money: How Society Can Break the Despotic Power of Finance." Recently, a shortfall in tax revenue for the UK government has called the ruling coalition's deficit reduction targets into question. Ann tells us whether the British economy is strong enough to meet Chancellor Osborne's deficit targets. Ann also gives us an extended analysis on Greece’s economic turmoil and predictions on what will follow the elections.(published Jan 31)

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European Economy In A Difficult Position For Years (video)

European Economy in Difficult Position for Years: Del Ama: Video - Bloomberg:
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Bruno Del Ama, chief executive officer at Global X Funds, discusses the state of the European economy and how the drop in oil prices is impacting equities. He speaks on “In The Loop.” (Bloomberg 12/4)

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European Experiment Is Under Real Stress (video)

European Experiment Is Under Real Stress: Peter Henry: Video - Bloomberg:
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Peter Henry, dean at NYU Stern School of Business, discusses the state of the European Union as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi announces the bank’s next move this morning and looks at what has happened with Russia’s economy due to sanctions and the fall of the ruble. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (Bloomberg 12/4)

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Paul Krugman says Europe and China are "Seriously Scary" (video)

Paul Krugman: Europe and China are Seriously Scary -

On “Charlie Rose,” a conversation with Paul Krugman. He is a Nobel laureate in economics, a New York Times columnist and a professor at Princeton University.  (Source: Bloomberg--Oct 16)

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Europe, Economic Reality, Markets, Magical Thinking

Markets Are Making a Sucker's Bet on Europe - Bloomberg View: ".... further ECB actions, on their own, will prove insufficient to decisively change the euro area’s economic situation. So financial markets are really betting on is: 1) a better regional policy response to the fundamental causes of the muted recovery and 2) an easing of geo-political tensions surrounding Russia. Unfortunately, there is little to suggest that either of these will materialize, let alone the two together."

Not a good combination: Europe, Economic Reality, Markets, Magical Thinking

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GDP, Asian Ascendance, Europe, US Decline (video)

GDP Power: Asian Ascendance as Europe, U.S. Decline: Video - Bloomberg:
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Bloomberg's Scarlet Fu displays the gain in percentage of global GDP in Asia as the rest of the world shows decline on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg Surveillance." (June 12)

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Apple, Europe, and Taxes

I've already written why there will be no tax reform in Washington or elsewhere because the big corporations pay such low tax rates currently--don't believe it when you are told we have a progressive tax system. The tax system in the US is grossly regressive--in fact, a flat tax system, with no personal deductions and corporate loopholes, would be much fairer than our present system. Just read the following--

No, Really, Apple Just Isn't Doing Any Tax Avoidance In Europe - Forbes: "Various of the English newspapers like to run stories on how the big tech companies are avoiding tax in the UK and Europe. Every week or two we get another piece saying that Facebook, or Amazon, Apple, have been avoiding tax and that this is an outrage, must be stopped etc. The sad thing about all of these stories is that the people writing them just don’t seem to understand the basics of the European corporation tax system. The latest story is the Sunday Times with Apple. That paper’s gated so here’s the Telegraph explanation of it:

Apple is estimated to have avoided more than £550m in tax in Britain in 2011. Its latest accounts show UK turnover at just over £1bn and profit at £81.3m, generating a tax bill of £14.4m.

 . . . So, clearly, Apple has been tax avoiding, right? Sadly, no, that’s where the problem comes in. . . . What they’re actually doing is selling the hardware through their Irish company. This one, right here. They do have AppleStores in the UK, yes, and it’s the retail sales from those that provide that £1 billion turnover and that small tax bill. But if you buy online from Apple you get your kit from Ireland. If you’re a dealer, a reseller, a shop, an electronics chain, a telecoms chain, you get your kit from Ireland. As, more than likely, do the AppleStores get their machines through Ireland. Yes, Ireland has a much lower rate of corporation tax than other EU countries: but this still isn’t tax avoidance. For we now have to look at the “but did the lawmakers mean this?” test. And the truth is, yes they did. . . . "

So don't blame Apple and the other corporations--blame the governments!

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Europe’s disastrous summit--I'm with Felix

I'm with Felix--

Europe’s disastrous summit | Felix Salmon: "Remember how Wolfgang Münchau said that the Euro zone had to get it right at this summit or it would collapse? Well, the Euro zone has most emphatically not got it right. Take any of the list of prescriptions of the minimum necessary right now — from Münchau, from Larry Summers, from Mohamed El-Erian — and the one thing that jumps out at you, especially in light of the most recent news, is that if you look at anybody’s list, there’s an enormous number of items which has zero chance of actually happening. . . . It all adds up to one of the most disastrous summits imaginable. . . the dream of European unity is dissolving in real time, as the eyes of the world look on in disbelief. Europe’s leaders have set a course which leads directly to a gruesome global recession, before we’ve even recovered from the last one. Europe can’t afford that; America can’t afford that; the world can’t afford that. But the hopes of arriving anywhere else have never been dimmer."

Second opinion? Here you are--
" . . . this looks like a disastrous meeting. More austerity, more posing of the crisis, wrongly, as being all about fiscal deficits; no mechanism for ECB funding. Somehow southern Europe is supposed to deflate its way to prosperity, while everyone runs a trade surplus, presumably against that potentially habitable planet we’ve discovered 600 light-years away." Paul Krugman, New York Times

The U.S. is already getting inflows as a "safe haven" from the chaos about to descend upon Europe.

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Angela Merkel to Europe: "You vill obey!"

Europe - Debt Crisis Shows Angela Merkel Is the Boss - CNBC: "Groucho Marx once said that money frees you from doing things you dislike. “Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy,” said the Marx Brother. Having spent billions of euros they didn’t have, governments across Europe are now finding out the hard way that without money they have to accept things that they would rather not be doing—namely, taking orders from Angela Merkel in Berlin . . ."

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Europe: the crisis is not over--

Europe: the crisis is not over--

1. The problem is not solved --
An EU Summit mis-think: The pitfalls in official first-loss bond insurance | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists: . . . Italy is a lot like Fukushima . . .

2. The markets know it --(watch the Italy/Germany spread)

http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/!ITAGER10:IND  

But the stock markets went up Thursday you say? The stock markets today are full of traders and speculators--if you're an investor, it's best not to hang out in bad neighborhoods!

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Europe's temporary solution (video)

Europe's temporary solution, the crisis is not over (video below)

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What were they thinking? Magical thinking!

I follow Paul Krugman regularly and not because I necessarily agree with him, but to get his view of things.
Today he nails it re: Europe and the continuing "crisis" and the roots thereof:

Forgetting Can Hurt You Badly. . . the creators of the euro essentially threw away hard-won wisdom — stuff that Bagehot knew in the 19th century! — to create a stripped-down central bank without the powers or flexibility that history has shown are necessary (lender of last resort). What were they thinking?. . . supposedly sober, serious people are actually radicals insisting that we can make the economy work in ways that it has never worked in the past — hence the embrace of magical thinking on expansionary austerity and the power of structural reform. . . . which is why we’re in the state we’re in.

It's just more of what I've said before.

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