Tito's Blog

Follow me on Twitter     Follow me via RSS
Random thoughts on entrepreneurship, venture capital, private equity, world finance and global economy

Get Updates

 Subscribe to RSS feed

About
tito@titocosta.com
Tito on the web
Tito on Twitter
Tito on Friendfeed
Tito on Facebook
Tito on LinkedIn
Tito's Search
Tito's News

Favorites
Slice of MIT
Baseline Scenario

Archive

Jun
26th
Sat
permalink
Tags: germany   US   economics   trade   consumption   gdp   europe   euro  
Comments (View)
permalink
It prevailed in a bidding war for Greece’s Emporiki, a money-losing, government-owned lender. A senior Crédit Agricole executive said at the time that the deal reflected “the confidence we have in the Greek economy and the superior growth of the Greek banking sector.
Tags: greece   banks   credit agricole   europe   finance   euro  
Comments (View)
Jun
24th
Thu
permalink
The euro may fall as much as 28 percent if France fails to repay investors, while a default by the Spanish government would trigger a 20 percent currency devaluation, Italy a 17 percent drop and Germany a 25 percent decline, according to Citigroup.
Tags: euro   finance   government debt   italy   france   germany   spain   europe  
Comments (View)
Jun
8th
Tue
permalink
The Spanish government faces what Mr Parenteau calls “the paradox of public thrift”: the less it borrows, the more it will end up owing.
Tags: spain   europe   euro   economics  
Comments (View)
May
31st
Mon
permalink
What we are currently experiencing is a crisis of public finances in advanced economies. It started with Greece, and the euro, because of the specific institutional framework which prevents Greece and the other euro area countries from using the inflation tax to overcome their budgetary problems. This will force euro area countries to address their fiscal positions earlier. It’s not easy. But it will be done, because it can be done and it has to be done in any case. And, last but not least, because there are no alternatives.
Tags: europe   ECB   lorenzo bini smaghi   economics   euro   greece  
Comments (View)
May
18th
Tue
permalink
WAGES IN THE PERIPHERY NEED TO FALL 20-30 PERCENT RELATIVE TO GERMANY.
Tags: europe   euro   germany   economics   competitiveness  
Comments (View)
May
6th
Thu
permalink
Excellent article by FT’s Martin Wolf as usual.
Greece needs a haircut.

Excellent article by FT’s Martin Wolf as usual.

Greece needs a haircut.

Tags: greece   euro   europe   finance   economics   government debt  
Comments (View)
May
5th
Wed
permalink
Should the deal fail, Greece “might do a kind of dual currency in which they use their scarce euros to meet their external commitments and in the meantime use an internal IOU, rather as Californian and some of the Argentinian states did, in order to meet their internal commitments” Goodhart said. “It would be a dual currency and the internal currency would fluctuate compared to the euro.
Tags: greece   dual currency   euro   europe   government debt   finance  
Comments (View)
May
4th
Tue
permalink

As I have argued before, three things are required if the eurozone is to survive in the medium term: a crisis resolution system, better fiscal policy co-ordination, and policies to reduce intra-eurozone imbalances. But this is only the minimum necessary to get through the next few years. Beyond that, the eurozone will almost certainly need both an embryonic fiscal union and a single European bond.

I used to think that such constructions would be desirable, albeit politically unrealistic. Now I believe they are without alternative, as the experiment of a monetary union without political union has failed. The EU is thus about to confront a historic choice between integration and disintegration.

Tags: europe   euro   economics   finance  
Comments (View)
Apr
16th
Fri
permalink
Greece’s (and Italy’s) addiction to corruption is undermining the credibility of the whole Eurozone.

Greece’s (and Italy’s) addiction to corruption is undermining the credibility of the whole Eurozone.

Tags: economics   corruption   greece   italy   europe   euro  
Comments (View)