Foreign news: Pour Encourager les Autres

Foreign financial news for 29 November 2011

• Pour Encourager les Autres – Nada es Gratis

  Just as the EU is looking to take fiscal control over individual states, this article at the Spanish blog Nada es Gratis suggests the Spanish national government should do the same with Spanish regional finances in places like Extremadura, “pour encourager les autres”.

• Grecia prescinde de 16.000 funcionarios – ABC.es

  ABC (Spain) reports that the Greek state has begun to make good on the austerity efforts it promised the EU and the INF by firing 16,000 government workers.

• Bataille franco-allemande pour un poste à la BCE – Libération

  French newspaper Libération tells us that Paris and Berlin are in dispute over who gets the chief economist post at the ECB. Naturally, the French want a Frenchman and the Germans want a German.

• Frankrijk moet 56 miljard aan DBB – De Standaard

  France needs to cough up 56 billion euros to help with the Dexia bailout reports De Standaard (Belgium), because, according to Monique Delvou, spokesperson for Dexia Bank, Dexia Bank functioned as a liquidity center for the whole group.

• Arbeitsmarkt: Deutschlands Firmen suchen verzweifelt Personal – Nachrichten Wirtschaft – WELT ONLINE

  Germany is still living in a tight labour market according to Die Welt (Germany). In almost all industries, people are “wringing their hands” in pursuit of qualified personnel. “Demand for workers has reached a record high,” the paper says.

• Schuldenkrise in Europa: Polen drängt Deutschland zu schneller Hilfe – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Nachrichten – Wirtschaft

  Spiegel (Germany) reports that Poland’s foreign minister has pleaded in public with Germany to do something to stop the euro crisis. He says the Germans know they are the only ones that can do anything.

• Währungshüter: EZB kauft für mehr als 200 Milliarden Staatsanleihen – Nachrichten Wirtschaft – WELT ONLINE

  Since May 2010, the ECB has bought over 200 billion euros of euro zone government debt, according to Die Welt (Germany). I believe this is a major reason one should expect them to capitulate and go to the full monetisation option… that is unless the ECB thinks it can engineer a default without itself taking losses. Good luck.

• Staatsanleihen: Belgischer Anleihezins steigt auf 11-Jahres-Hoch – Nachrichten Wirtschaft – WELT ONLINE

  Belgian interest rates are at the highest level since 2000 according to Die Welt.

• Schweizer Geldpolitik: Nationalbank will Franken weiter schwächen – Handelsblatt

  The Swiss want the Franc to weaken further, according to Handelsblatt (Germany) “The collapsing economy domestically and abroad has hit the country too hard.”