Readers that are unfamiliar with the soap opera that is politics in Malta, may be unaware that there is something of a political crisis underway. I shall refrain from boring you with the details, but let’s just say that it is less of a storm in a teacup and more of a squall on a [...]

The events of the last couple of days have proved to be very predictable and a little depressing… For several weeks it has been known that there were possible downgrades coming from the ratings agencies for a number of eurozone member states. In the end, it turned out to be nine that went south. In [...]

A recent op-ed for Project Syndicate caught my eye. Written by Shimon Peres, President of Israel, it struck me just how accurate he is. The main thrust of the piece is that a study of history will not help a politician these days. There is so much going on, things are moving so quickly and [...]

It has been quite a while since I made a written forecast of any sort about the economy. In fact, the last one I could find dates back to July 2009 (2016: The End Of This Recession?). In that post, I said that, “My own personal guess is that we have another two or perhaps [...]

The euro crisis is really, really, really bloody complicated. I think most sensible people can agree on that. Just read any recent coverage of it in the Economist or perhaps Martin Wolf’s blog at the FT and it is clear that there are multiple layers upon multiple layers to deal with. To try and put [...]

Since the decision by David Cameron at last week’s summit to have no part in a new treaty, the media has been full of opinions about whether it was a good or bad thing. I find it hard to believe that anyone knows the real impact or cost, and it may take years – or [...]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. While European finances and economies crumble, the battle rages on between Europe and nation states. Witness this week’s Merkozy agreement (for what it is worth, I love that name!). One of the features of their pact is that there will be no eurobonds. This has [...]

A story on the BBC website caught my eye this morning. It seems to suggest that the prospect of a German debt devaluation is appealing to some in the German government. Close followers of the eurozone debt debacle will remember the ‘leak’ from the German team negotiating with Greece some months ago that Greece might [...]

Amongst the terrible economic gloom and doom of the last few days has come this news about rising unemployment in the eurozone. It never rains… One number really stood out for me, “Youth unemployment in Spain rose to 48.9%.” My goodness that is grim. There must be lots of Spaniards in their late teens and [...]

Your author attended a policy event in the European Parliament this week. This one stood out for me for some of the wrong reasons. Firstly, I understand that many events of this nature need a sponsor and that said sponsor is hoping to have their policy issue debated and get their point across. Roger that. [...]

This week saw FinancialGuy fly in to Brussels to attend the 2011 TEDxBrussels event, held in Bozar. Honestly, the event was excellent and well worth the effort and costs of travel. I can’t lie, there were a number of speakers that seemed desparate to discuss the exact same topic, “singularity”. Most of the attendees I [...]

European Voice has recently produced a briefing document about Europe’s innovation policy. Titled “Innovation in Europe“, it really is an excellent beginners guide to what this oh-so-important policy area is all about. (It was actually released in print several weeks ago, but I have been waiting for it to land on their website before I [...]

Those that know me personally will likely have heard me say that economically the euro is a bad idea and everything will go wrong eventually. I have been saying it for years. Luckily for me, I have never been pressed with a question such as, “How will it go wrong?”. Something tells me that, “A [...]

After all that, €1 trillion euros buys a Greek referendum? Is that really the breathing space the world was hoping for? It seems difficult to describe this as anything less than a calamity for the EU, the Euro and especially for Greece. What sort of question should be put to the Greek voters? Do you [...]

It has been clear for months in this European debt tragedy that those lending money expect those borrowing it to make some pretty tough choices. I have had a couple of conversations with fairly influential people in Brussels whose opinions are along the lines of, “You have already spent the money and borrowed money to [...]

Several weeks ago, one of my writing projects raised an interesting question in my mind about the extent to which governments ought to be prepared to support, or pay for, corporate R&D. Since I do not plan to lose this client or embarrass anyone involved, I will not name the sector, companies or organisations involved. [...]

In my last post (A European Digital Single Market Takes A Big Step Forwards) I mentioned that there was more to write about the event (the Lisbon Council 2011 Innovation Summit in Brussels). One of the most interesting aspects of the morning for me was the presentation of a policy brief (you can download it [...]

This morning’s 2011 Innovation Summit held by the Lisbon Council was the most timely event I have ever attended in Brussels bar none. A question that has been puzzling me of late, but that I had not really managed to articulate well or answer was a simple one, and it was addressed in some depth [...]

Yesterday I attended a joint press conference in the European Parliament hosted by Gianni Pitella MEP and Anna Maria Darmanin. Both are Vice-Presidents – one of the Parliament and the other of the Economic and Social Committee. They were together to launch a joint tour of universities across the continent. The reason? To find out [...]

Today’s Digital Agenda Summit from The Lisbon Council proved to be both an eye opener and perplexing. As someone with an above average understanding of digital issues it was a real worry just how much more complex the main issue being discussed really is than I had realised. What is that issue? Data management and [...]

Poor old President Barroso. He is in a right pickle at the moment. As was reported in various places yesterday, he has little choice but to formally propose the use of eurobonds to try and shore up the eurozone debt crisis. Politically, this is possibly the most – and perhaps only – viable solution, but [...]

As someone with a more than passing interest and knowledge in politics, policy, finance and markets, I am less than convinced about the idea of greater fiscal integration amongst EU or eurozone countries. This lack of personal support might be because I am British and we are pretty much born and bred eurosceptics. Or it [...]

If you are one of my regular readers that is interested in EU innovation policy, I would like to draw your attention to an article in last week’s Economist (Start me up August 6th 2011). The article is actually about Britain rather than the EU, but I think that if the word ‘Britain’ was substituted [...]

With yet another summit about the debt crisis looming, is there any hope? A quick scan of the news this morning shows multiple media quoting French Finance Minister Francois Baroin as saying that Europe needs to send a “strong message” about Greece and the Euro. Is that it? A strong message??? The time for a [...]

On Wednesday this week, the Brussels based Lisbon Council hosted an event about IP and copyright laws titled, “How the Intellectual Property Framework Supports Innovation and Growth“. Your author has been doing a lot of reading about these topics in recent weeks and found this to be another very interesting event from the Lisbon Council. [...]