“We do not have a federal budget, so the idea that we could do the same as what is done on the other side of the Atlantic doesn’t fit with the political structure of Europe,”
Jean-Claude Trichet, commenting last week on the Eupean “summit” in Paris last Saturday
“If you concentrate on California or Florida, it is [...]

Well I have just noticed a new new Eurozone blog: Daniela Schwarzer and Sebastian Dullien who have been blogging at Eurozone Watch Blog for a few months now. Daniela has a post today about Mr Euro, Jean-Claude Juncker. But see this George Parker piece in the FT:
Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank president, on Friday delivered [...]

While Latvia is still arguing with the EU Commission over the spelling of eiro (or is it euro), the FT today asks the much more pertinent question: will the other baltic states even be able to join? On the backs of the energy hike Estonia and Lithuania are struggling to comply with the entry conditions, [...]

Really, when I saw this I had a hard time believing it.
The UK’s case for staying out of Europe’s single currency “is becoming weaker”, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has argued in a bid to reopen Britain’s euro debate……The British economy has prospered outside of the single currency but with increasing harmonisation in other areas [...]

Yesterday the news from Italy was the sudden drop in industrial output, today it is the fact that this makes Berlusconi’s re-election much more uphill work. In particular his coalition just lost a vote in Messina, Sicily, that they normally should have won.
This trend in indutrial output is important for what it implies about [...]

Inflation in the eurozone is not about to spiral out of control. I have been arguing this for months now. The latest piece of evidence: French consumer prices fell 0.3 percent in November as compared with the previous month:
French consumer prices fell 0.3 percent in November on the previous month, national statistics office INSEE reported [...]

Well, this was really what I had been waiting for, not that I welcome the news, obviously, but simply that as far as I am concerned it is far from unexpected. People have been ‘writing off’ Italy’s grave structural problems far too easily IMHO:
Industrial production in Italy declined 0.9 percent month-on-month in October for an [...]

Am I being a little harsh with Jean Claude-Trichet? Perhaps, it is a hard (if not impossible) job he has on his hands. And in this post I did try hard to think about credible arguments in favour of the recent rate rise.
New arrival on the European economics blogging scene Claus Vistesen argues that [...]

Mario Monti - former European commissioner for the EU internal market - is interviewed in the FT today. On the recent ECB decision to raise interest rates he has this to say:
“Critics of the ECB say its monetary policy has been too restrictive. Mr Monti disagrees but says “there is an institutional credibility to be [...]

Well, despite the fact that the eurozone finance ministers aren’t on board, and that the OECD doesn’t approve, Trichet and company will undoubtedly go ahead tomorrow with the first refi rate rise in 5 years. (I think important issues are involved here, so I’ll try and write something more substantial for Afoe tomorrow, when the [...]