Asking the Right Questions
Mario Draghi: confidence or arrogance with ECB efforts?
While Mario Draghi had equity markets salivating last week, the Germans will be wincing in the knowledge that their monetary policy is now firmly in the hands of the money printing Italian,
All eyes on Mario Draghi and his QE announcement
While Mario Draghi has argued for years that Europe is not turning Japanese, in terms of a deflationary spiral, the performance of European government bonds would suggest that the battle is being lost against deflation.
Jen says Nein
Everyone knows that the German Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann has been a thorn in the side for ECB President Mario Draghi. The Italian would love to unleash the type of unconventional monetary policy that would have financial markets salivating, the purchase of Eurozone government…
Why are investors only waking up to risks now?
We have known for some time that the German economy was slowing. The economy contracted by -0.2% in the second quarter and since then the business and consumer confidence surveys as well as the PMI data have shown weakness. So why are investors only…
Size matters: Mario Draghi disappoints financial markets
It turns out size does really matter, well when it comes to central bank balance sheets anyway. While confirming that purchases of asset back securities (ABS) and covered bonds will begin mid-October, for at least two years, Mario Draghi disappointed investors by not announcing…
ECB meeting in focus
The main event this week is without doubt the monetary policy meeting at the European Central Bank (ECB). There is no room to move on interest rates because we are at the lower bound but we can expect the so-called “detailed modalities” of Draghi’s…
Eurozone Inflation Falls Further in August
ECB president Mario Draghi must be thinking “why always me” as the latest economic data heaped more pressure on Draghi to wave his magic wand (perceived to be quantitative easing through the eyes of financial markets) and fix the ailing Eurozone economy. In particular,…
European Central Bank: New Policy Measures
The European Central Bank was centre stage last week with their latest monetary policy announcement. It was only last night that I got a chance to watch his full press conference, after the Ireland match. I can say both were on par in terms…
Eurozone Economic Recovery & Pressure on the ECB
The flash estimate of second quarter GDP, published by Eurostat, showed that the Eurozone economy was flat in the second quarter after growing by a mere 0.2% in the first quarter. While many of the peripheral countries recorded faster growth there was weakness was…
ECB: Update on Intensive Preparatory work on ABS Purchases
As expected the European Central Bank (ECB) made no change to monetary policy, with Draghi reiterating the usual spiel that monetary policy will remain accommodative, inflation expectations remain in check and of course the Governing Council is “unanimous in its commitment to also use…
