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The Euro could "collapse" within the next 18 months, the man tipped as the next US ambassador to Brussels has claimed, adding that he would "short" the EU single currency if he was an investor. Prof Ted Malloch, a former Oxford University professor now at University of Reading, added that the UK and US could cut a bilateral trade deal inside 90 days and that elections in Europe this year could sweep away the EU as we know it. "The one thing I would do in 2017 is short the euro," Mr Malloch told the BBC, "I think it is...

How often can I be right? As much as President Trump said Americans will win. As France burns from years of socialist rule, America goes through a Renaissance. The difference is America elected a real leader and not a chump. We watched for 8 years as our black version of Emmanuel Macron ruined the country. Over $8 trillion worthless dollars printed then pumped into an anemic economy, and the black Boy Wonder felt like a rock star. As one comedian put it, “We told you Obama was Superman, but we forgot to tell you he didn’t know how to fly.”...

Britain has reclaimed its place as one of the top five countries that firms look to make deals in, just six months after dropping off the list in the wake of the country’s surprise to leave the European Union, according to a survey released Monday. In its half-yearly report of business executives, consulting firm EY said Britain has rebounded to be the third most attractive destination for mergers and acquisitions, behind the U.S. and China. Last October, in the wake of the Brexit vote, it had slumped to seventh and out of the top five for the first time in...

Deepening ties with European companies and “old friends” like the United States and Japan would help Britain preserve its global role in finance after leaving the EU, an industry body said on Wednesday. TheCityUK published a to-do list for the financial sector and government, saying June’s vote to leave the European Union magnified the challenge of keeping up with global competition in finance. Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris and Milan all hope to win a slice of London’s market share in financial services. …

London could lose more than a million jobs if Britain quits the EU and fails to adopt more outward-looking trade policies, according to a report commissioned by Boris Johnson, the London mayor. In those circumstances, the capital could shed 1.2m jobs and lose out on tens of billions of pounds of gross domestic product, the report says.

European banks would leave London “in very short order” if Britain voted to exit the European Union, a senior Goldman Sachs executive said in a newspaper interview published on Monday. Michael Sherwood, a vice-chairman at the bank, said the prospect of a British withdrawal was a real worry given Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to hold a referendum on the subject if re-elected in 2015. … Goldman’s Sherwood predicted European banks would quickly relocate if Britain did sever its EU ties. “Forget what we would do. Every European firm would be gone in very short order,” he was quoted as...

International debt inspectors believe they have found another €15bn (£12.5bn) black hole in Greece’s public finances caused by the deepening recession, delivering the crippled nation another devastating blow. With pressure growing over talks with private investors about the terms of a €100bn debt write-off, officials calculated that to bring the country’s debts to a sustainable level at 120pc of GDP the international community would need to find an extra €15bn, raising the prospect of a Greek default. Sources told news organisations in Brussels that weak growth will make it even more difficult for Greece to resolve its debt problem, leaving...

A majority of Britons would vote to leave the European Union if given the chance, according to a survey published on Sunday. The Optimum Research poll in The Observer newspaper found that 34 percent would definitely vote to quit the 27-member bloc and 22 percent would probably do so, giving a total of 56 percent that would opt to leave the EU. …

The EU commission on Tuesday (24 October) proposed that a group of 11 countries move ahead with a common financial transactions tax, after years of wrangling failed to produce a deal among all member states. Estonia late on Tuesday joined an earlier group of 10—Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain—willing to go ahead with the tax. The proposal still needs the approval of a majority of the EU’s 27 countries and the European Parliament, after which a joint legal text will be issued. EU tax commissioner Algirdas Semeta said this will be “the epitome of...

Member states will pay 50 percent less into the general EU budget by 2020 if they agree to implement a financial transactions tax (FTT), the EU commission said Thursday (22 March). In a last-ditch attempt to undermine government opposition to both this specific 'Robin Hood' levy and the general idea of Brussels raising taxes, EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski put some concrete savings figures on the table. By the commission's estimate, Germany would pay €10.7 billion less to the EU budget by 2020, Poland €1.8 billion, Italy €6.4 billion and Latvia €81 million. The UK, the Netherlands and Sweden—the strongest...

The European Commission said revenue from a proposed financial transaction tax (FTT) should be set aside to fight poverty and climate change, as an investment against global instability. “I would very much want member countries really to take it seriously,” European commissioner for development Andris Piebalgs told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday (27 February). The FTT is backed by 11 member states and would put 0.1 percent levy on bonds and shares and 0.01 percent on derivative products. Estimated generated annual revenues could range between €30 billion to €35 billion ($39 billion–$46 billion) a year. …

An attempt by Britain to rewrite the EU rulebook to reflect domestic interests could make the European Union fall apart, its top official has warned. EU council president Herman Van Rompuy told the Guardian newspaper that London’s quest to repatriate powers from Brussels could spark other member states to do the same. “If every member state were able to cherry-pick those parts of existing policies that they most like, and opt out of those that they least like, the union in general, and the single market in particular, would soon unravel.” … Meanwhile, the future-of-Europe debate is taking place in...

THE unfolding story of how Barclays — and, in all likelihood, other big banks — rigged interest rates is full of telling tidbits about the way Wall Street works. It also represents yet another teachable moment. By now the world knows that Barclays manipulated the most widely used benchmark rate, the London interbank offered rate. But Barclays is just one member of the cozy club that sets the Libor, which is supposed to be based on the average rate at which large banks can borrow money overnight. It’s not based on actual transactions, however — and that leaves room for...

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday he would block any attempt to introduce an EU-wide financial transaction tax because he fears it will harm jobs and prosperity in Europe. Cameron said countries such as France pushing for the introduction of such a levy were welcome to go ahead and introduce it within their own borders. But implementing a tax in the European Union when countries in the rest of the world were not bound by it would have a negative effect on jobs and prosperity in Europe, he said. "If the French themselves want to go ahead with a...

It is disgusting to see UK Prime Minister David Cameron all but throw away the victory he achieved when he vetoed the Merkozy treaty. Please consider these sniveling, apologetic snips from the New York Times article Cameron Says His Veto on Europe Treaty Protects Britain Mr. Cameron, a Conservative, seemed at pains to offer soothing words to those afraid that he had so alienated his European allies that Britain was bound to leave the European Union altogether. “Britain remains a full member of the E.U., and the events of the last week do nothing to change that,” Mr. Cameron said....

David Cameron is at the centre of a furious row with Nicolas Sarkozy after Paris tried to isolate the prime minister at the EU summit by suggesting that Britain is seeking to exempt the City of London from all European regulations. In a move dismissed by officials in Brussels as an attempt to set Britain up as the fall guy, senior French figures said Cameron wanted an opt out from EU financial services regulation. The French were said to have found themselves isolated in their attempt to limit an agreement on tough fiscal rules for the single currency just to...

Increasingly, it appears we are witnessing the death of democracy and the right of sovereign nations inside the eurozone to govern their own affairs. First the overbearing eurocrats — led by France and Germany — bullied Greece into dropping its planned referendum. Then they forced Prime Minister George Papandreou from office and made it plain that the country’s next leader must be a pro-Brussels technocrat of whom they, rather than the Greek people, approve. Now the power-hungry duo of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are turning their attentions to Silvio Berlusconi, whom they no longer trust to reduce Italy’s own...

Yesterday, various news agencies reported that Hungary opted out of the treaty while Sweden and Czech Republic remained "undecided". However, the latest spin is that Hungary did not opt out yet and the gang of 26 will forge ahead without the UK. UK the "Big Loser" Having Fallen into "French Trap"? Last evening in German Vision Prevails as Leaders Agree on Fiscal Pact the New York Times portrayed the UK as the "big loser", stating Cameron made a "poor gamble". On EU official said the UK fell into a "French Trap". Exactly 20 years to the day after European leaders...

Plans to "decisively address" the debt crisis this weekend were plunged into chaos on Thursday night as European leaders were forced to announce another "summit" next week amid political deadlock between France and Germany. A statement released by the Elysee Palace said that Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel would meet to discuss their "ambitious and comprehensive response" to the crisis ahead of the European Council summit on Sunday. But in a tacit admission of the gulf between them, the statement added that resolutions would be "finally adopted" at a "second meeting no later than Wednesday". Insiders said the weekend's summit...

Preserving Europe’s single currency is vital for peace on the continent, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has claimed. Pay cuts, pension reforms and austerity drives are preferable to a break-up of the euro, which threatens “peacefulness” in the region. Echoing President Sarkozy’s comments on Thursday about the “brutal” wars of 20th century, Ms Merkel said at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “Many countries should resort to some very hard policies but we should never fall back into the same old habits of the past. We need to prevent that happening. “It is the embodiment of Europe today. Should the euro...