Between the lines

The “Gnomes of Zürich” is a disparaging term for Swiss bankers. Swiss bankers are popularly associated with extremely secretive policies, while gnomes in fairy tales live underground, in secret, counting their riches. Zürich is the commercial centre of Switzerland… After the banking crises of 2008-2009 the Swiss franc was regarded as THE safe haven for […]

Doomsday scenarios are so overdone, similarly futuristic predictions as to how we’d all be living in the twenty first century have always disappointingly fallen short of the mark. I can’t be the only one feeling slightly let down by technology, yes we have our smart phones, can communicate over the new fangled ‘inter web’ have

Christine Lagarde, the recently appointed head of the International Monetary Fund, is actively encouraging various countries across the globe to work together in order to fix the European debt crisis, and stimulate economic growth. Lagarde warns that this unity urgently needs to stimulate economic growth or risk a return to the Great Depression. In a

Lingering tensions between Britain and France over the future of the EU will have intensified from Wednesday onwards after Nicolas Sarkozy accused David Cameron of behaving like “an obstinate kid” after Cameron stunned the EU by using the British veto at the European summit late last week. Cameron has indicated that he was prepared to

Europe’s leaders will once again gather in Brussels for the latest ‘make-or-break’ summit on Thursday night through to Friday evening amid mounting evidence that eurozone banks are already insolvent and in the eye of the storm of a fresh credit crunch. The European Central Bank has announced that various banks across the continent have already

The EBA (European Banking Authority) have issued a statement/edict suggesting that banks within the European Union must raise circa 114.7 billion euros in fresh capital in order to comply with measures introduced to respond to the euro area’s sovereign-debt crisis. Specifically German banks will need to raise an additional 13.1 billion euros, Italian banks 15.4

S&P went a step further on Tuesday evening, following its threats of Euro nation credit downgrades, by placing the top-notch rating of the euro zone’s 440 billion euro rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), on negative watch as it depends on the creditworthiness of the currency bloc’s six AAA-rated countries. European Council President