Is world war looming? Europe’s policy pivot reveals leaders’ fears (POLITICO)
By Bjarke Smith-Meyer · Feb 15, 2024 BRUSSELS ― Europe is gearing up for war. That much is obvious. Whispered conversations among the EU’s most influential decisionmakers reveal a disturbing new truth: Gone are the days when the bloc had the luxury of prioritizing the green agenda or improving competitiveness. Now it’s all about coping […]
The ECB is taking a long hard look at itself (POLITICO)
By Johanna Treeck, Carlo Boffa · Feb 9, 2024 FRANKFURT — When the global financial crisis struck in 2008, panicked central bankers desperate to stop the system collapsing and avoid deflation did the unthinkable: they threw out their operating manuals and cranked up the money printers to unprecedented levels. In the process they created a […]
Spotlight on the pre-positioning revolution coming to finance
TLDR: Cbankers’ enthusiastic embrace of prepositioning points to growing acceptance of former BoE governor Lord Mervyn King’s ‘Pawnbroker For All Seasons” model. But some worry it might have grave consequences for free markets. There’s a quiet revolution happening at the heart of central banking, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it. On the surface, the inconspicuous […]
Pre-positioning: the quiet revolution rocking central banking (POLITICO)
By Izabella Kaminska · Jan 19, 2024 There’s a quiet revolution happening at the heart of central banking, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it. On the surface, the inconspicuous language around the shift makes it sound like any other boring back-office central bank protocol. For now, even financial markets haven’t picked up on its significance. […]
German central bank chief to join street protest against right-wing extremism (POLITICO)
By Geoffrey Smith · Jan 18, 2024 The head of Germany’s fiercely independent central bank is taking to the streets in protest at the rise of far-right extremism. Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel told Der Spiegel on Thursday he was concerned by the rise of right-wing populism “both as Bundesbank president and as a citizen” and […]
Political push for cheaper ‘green’ interest rate runs into ECB resistance (POLITICO)
By Ben Munster · Jan 17, 2024 Central bankers and politicians are at odds over a new scheme to combat climate change that would get cheap funding to companies pushing the green transition and discriminate against polluters, by offering them two different interest rates. Politicians, including French President Emmanuel Macron, argue that rolling out such […]
UK unveils plan to guard supply chains against geopolitical threats (POLITICO)
By Joseph Bambridge · Jan 17, 2024 LONDON — The United Kingdom has unveiled its strategy to help businesses navigate risks to their supply chains as tensions threaten to disrupt vital trade routes around the world. The Critical Imports and Supply Chains Strategy, published Wednesday, addresses the impact of “geopolitical tensions” which have “already forced […]
The ECB’s digital euro team is coming apart (POLITICO)
The ECB’s digital euro team is coming apart By POLITICO Pro Staff · Dec 21, 2023 It’s not just political enthusiasm that’s waning for the digital euro. Staff are abandoning the project too. POLITICO has learned that around 30 percent of the team planning the minting of virtual euro banknotes and coins have left the […]
Europe’s bonfire of the vaccines (POLITICO)
By Carlo Martuscelli, Hanne Cokelaere · Dec 14, 2023 “Be prepared,” goes the scout motto. The European Union is discovering there is such a thing as being too prepared. An analysis by POLITICO reveals that at least 215 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines purchased by EU countries during the pandemic now lie in landfills across […]
War fatigue splits Ukraine’s politicians and soldiers (POLITICO)
By Veronika Melkozerova · Dec 5, 2023, 7:21 AM KYIV — More than 21 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine the mood is turning grim in Kyiv — with tensions between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top general, Valery Zaluzhny, spilling into the open. Last year’s successes, as Ukraine first blunted Russia’s […]