The Spectator (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a hot news story from the Spectator. Check it out!
It looks like a positive result but further detail is required and we shall have to see how markets react?
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……I read the Charlamagne column in the Economist over breakfast this morning. It’s well worth a read, so check it out!
Charlemagne: And then there was one | The Economist.
Here are the key messages that I took away:
- Germany is now the undisputed leader in Europe
- Germany is clear on its dislikes but less clear on its vision, especially for Europe
- Germany is the biggest economy, “with deepest pockets so its view tend to prevail”
- Germany sets itself up as an example with surging economic output and historically low unemployment
- Germany values legal order so it will push the EU to enshrine doctrines in formal treaties
- Germany has “misdiagnosed the Euro crisis as caused by enforcement of fiscal rules, rather than poor design of the Euro itself”
- Germany’s public is often removed from the crisis “in their relative well-being, the crisis still feels distant, even abstract”
- Germany’s priority or more precisely Mrs. Merkel’s “will be to limit Germany’s liabilities”.
- Germany (via Mrs Merkel) has moved its position considerably over the last two years BUT
- Germany’s (via Mrs Merkel) “tendency to change only at the eleventh hour risks disaster for all”
My personal conclusion is that Germany is unlikely to change radically until it feels the same pain as the peripheral European countries, like Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain etc.
