Business Spectator

What may look like the euro’s strength is not quite what it seems. The eurozone remains as fragmented as ever, and neither Draghi’s words nor any real actions of his central bank will make a difference to this basic problem. The only way to tackle it would be a departure of some members from monetary union.

If there was a ranking for the most self-righteous nation in Europe, Germany would have a good chance of topping the list. Sure, without Germany’s support the euro may have already gone under, but the Germans are extremely good at coupling such help to their neighbours with unrequited advice on how to run their countries. As if Germany was some kind of role model that all the rest of the world should follow!

In that faraway wonderland that it is the eurozone, nothing is quite what it seems. It is a strange place where half-bankrupt governments can plan a return to capital markets at moderate yields, and a central bank is able to impress analysts by talking about things it cannot do. Both instances are patently absurd, but just because something is absurd has never stopped it from happening in Europe.

Published in Business Spectator (Melbourne), 3 April 2014 By all measures, it was a defeat of historic proportions for President François Hollande and his Socialist Party. Last weekend’s French local elections have turned the country upside down, or rather shifted it to the political right. It is also a reminder that of all the time bombs […]

Just because a recommendation was simple and straightforward does not make it wrong. It is the obvious solutions that sometimes work best. Just ask Tom Peters.

Markets are very good mechanisms for allocating resources via the price mechanism. By destroying the price mechanism, and by also undermining the incentives to disciplines of the market place, government almost by definition weakens the economy’s potential.

In witnessing the first annual loss of RWE, we are watching the decline of a once great company. It has been brought down not by mismanagement but by political forces beyond its control. As such, it is a textbook example of political risk.

Far from being a celebration of democracy — the European elections are actually the second-largest democratic elections in the world after India — they will only emphasise what is wrong with Europe.