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<title>Europe's woes provoke soul-searching on African monetary union (By David Marsh, Co-chairman)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:11:28 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[For many years, the legacy of the colonial past and their own exemplary economic performance after the Second World War gave the Europeans cult status in money matters across Africa. Now, with deep strains gnawing away at economic and monetary union (EMU), could all this be about to change? Quite a turnaround here. A continent that for decades has been a byword for grandiose economic mismanagement is now starting to ask whether Europe's governance problems make it the right model to follow. These reflections have been prompted by a week of discussions with central bankers and economists from African countries... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Europe's woes provoke soul-searching on African monetary union</link>
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<title>The three deadly sins of the euro protagonists (By David Marsh in Berlin)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:44:22 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Much burden-sharing still lies aheadAndr&eacute; Sz&aacute;sz, long-time board member of the Dutch central bank responsible for international monetary affairs, has witnessed all the major ups and downs of European money during a career that started in the 1970s.&nbsp; Referring to the treaty that set down the path towards economic and monetary union (EMU), he once opined:&nbsp; &lsquo;Not one of the politicians who agreed the Maastricht treaty in 1991 understood what they were doing.&rsquo;Sz&aacute;sz, who retired in the early 1990s, has a point... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#The three deadly sins of the euro protagonists</link>
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<title>When models are worse than useless (By Malan Rietveld)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:02:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Ouch, talk about bad press! This article in the revered Financial Times could hardly be more devastating on the Bank of England. It&rsquo;s clear that the Old Lady&rsquo;s forecasting models have been rendered near useless by the dysfunctionality of the banking system. We&rsquo;ve known all along that the complex macroeconomic models &ndash; even the bells-and-whistles Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (try explaining that one to an angry politician!) &ndash; cannot capture the so-called financial-to-real-economy linkages... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#When models are worse than useless</link>
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<title>A rising tide lifts all vessels (By Krafft Holtz)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:40:53 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Why we should be optimistic about euro's 2011 prospectsThe euro area has had a terrible press in 2010, particularly in the UK and the US. Deservingly so. The New Year started poorly too. But it is argued here that things can change for the better. Guest writer Krafft Holtz, director of Euroeconomics Consultancy, provides an upbeat vision of the euro in 2011. Holtz criticises the current methods of forecasting, calling them &ldquo;forecasting through the rear view window&rdquo;, and instead looks at the dangers of being too pessimistic... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#A rising tide lifts all vessels</link>
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<title>The reconversion of Otmar Issing (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:09:35 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Former ECB chief economist veers again towards pessimism on European single currencyOtmar Issing, the former chief economist of the European Central Bank and the German Bundesbank, is a genial number-cruncher who believes in the overall benefits of European integration but is genuinely open to others&rsquo; views. He is a key bellwether for Germany&rsquo;s stance on the euro. In his 75th year, nearly five years after he retired from the ECB, he is still someone to watch; particularly now he has turned virulently pessimistic over the European single currency... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#The reconversion of Otmar Issing</link>
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<title>The Westerwelle factor (By Darrell Delamaide)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:22:35 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Merkel's coalition partner weakens hand in euro crisisAngela Merkel&rsquo;s task in navigating the shoals of the euro crisis hasn&rsquo;t been made any easier by the leak sprung in her coalition with the plummeting popularity of the Free Democrats and their leader, Guido Westerwelle.Westerwelle is something of an anomaly. He is a deputy chancellor and party leader with little knowledge or interest in economics in the midst of an economic crisis. He is also a foreign minister with little knowledge or interest in foreign affairs... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#The Westerwelle factor</link>
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<title>Central banks in the money (By Malan Rietveld)</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:41:20 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[It seems a bit pass&eacute; at this stage of the financial crisis to state that central banks have never been as critical to functioning of the global financial system as right now.But just this week two news items served to remind of this fact. Both stories spoke to simple one fact: central banks, quite literally, are in the money.First, we hear that the Federal Reserve is &ldquo;the most profitable bank in history&rdquo;, after recording a tidy $89.9bn profit in 2010.Not bad, you might say. But the amounts of money don&rsquo;t really compare to the record $199bn jump in last year&rsquo;s fourth quarter alone in reserves held by the People&rsquo;s Bank of China... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Central banks in the money</link>
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<title>The motives behind China's euro purchases (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:49:38 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Beijing factors in power politics, economic self-interestChina and Japan are turning into the euro&rsquo;s best friends. Beijing is conducting a charm campaign over purchases of government bonds from the hard-up southern states of Greece, Portugal and Spain. Relatively small amounts, of course &mdash; but good public relations. For its part, Japan, the second largest owner of foreign exchange reserves after China, says it wants to acquire more than 20% of planned bond issues of the European bail-out fund as a means of boosting market confidence... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#The motives behind China's euro purchases</link>
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<title>US ready to take off gloves with China (By Darrell Delamaide)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:44:24 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Currency dispute could brim over to trade confrontationThe US is losing patience with China&rsquo;s intractability on the currency issue and is moving closer to a full-fledged confrontation over trade.At issue as President Hu Jintao conducts a state visit in the US is not only what Washington views as currency manipulation to keep down the value of the renminbi but also a host of other protectionist measures that apparently flout international trade rules.President Hu&rsquo;s plan to assuage American anxieties by promising new Chinese investment in the US won&rsquo;t be much of a sop to increasingly restive lawmakers and business leaders... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#US ready to take off gloves with China</link>
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<title>Marcus' quagmire - a common tale (By Malan Rietveld)</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:04:58 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[&lsquo;A lot of money&rsquo;. That&rsquo;s how Gill Marcus, the governor of the South African Reserve Bank, this week described the central bank&rsquo;s $53bn currency purchases in 2010 as part of a largely ineffectual attempt to stem the appreciation of the local unit.&lsquo;If you have spent that amount of money and the rand has appreciated you have to weigh up what you are doing it for,&rsquo; Marcus said after the meeting of the central bank&rsquo;s monetary policy committee. The South Africa rand appreciated some 12% in 2010, despite the central bank&rsquo;s efforts to reverse the tide... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Marcus' quagmire - a common tale</link>
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<title>China's dollar Achilles heel (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:55:49 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[&lsquo;The current international currency system,&rsquo; President Hu Jintao said portentously last week, &lsquo;is the product of the past.&rsquo;&nbsp; The statement made headlines around the world.&nbsp; However, as always, it was difficult to discern exactly what Hu was driving at.&nbsp;China wants to modify the present currency arrangements under which the dollar is still by far the dominant international money. But Beijing remains remarkably vague about what it wishes to put in its place. In the last couple of years, China has enacted a series of steps for enhancing the renminbi&rsquo;s global role... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#China's dollar Achilles heel</link>
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<title>Documenting an avoidable crisis (By Darrell Delamaide)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[US panel fixes blame for financial crisis on Wall Street, regulatorsIt hasn&rsquo;t been a great time for bipartisan commissions in the US, given the political polarisation in Washington. The deficit commission late last year failed to reach a consensus that would have required Congress to take action and President Obama&rsquo;s passing reference to its recommendations in his State of the Union speech will probably be the last we hear of them.Now the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is releasing its massive 576-page report this week with the endorsement of only the six Democratic members of the 10-member panel... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Documenting an avoidable crisis</link>
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<title>Germany is treading a thin dividing line between solidarity towards errant states in the euro area and solidarity towards its own citizens (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:13:41 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel both announced in Davos that the euro will not fail. The French and German finance ministers have proclaimed that the euro has turned a corner. European leaders are preparing a &lsquo;grand bargain&rsquo; on the future of the European Financial Stability Fund.But on whose terms will the bargain be? The sceptical tones in Germany are unmistakable: from the anti-inflationary sabre-rattling of German representatives on the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, through to profile-seeking Ministers from the junior coalition partners, the Free Democratic Party plugging a populist &lsquo;hard euro&rsquo;... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Germany is treading a thin dividing line between solidarity towards errant states in the euro area and solidarity towards its own citizens</link>
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<title>Will Rising Food Prices Threaten Future Investments? (By Marina Shargorodska, OMFIF Advisory Board)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:42:24 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[My 6th Annual World Economic Forum in Davos, which unofficially ended on Sunday, was marked by two prevailing topics: inflation in China and the unrest in Egypt. Of course, the interest in these topics goes far beyond the meeting rooms and presentation halls in Davos. Governments around the world seem on the verge of panic as they watch global food prices surging at the same time as they see helicopters circling in the skies above Cairo. The link has not been lost on them. Higher food prices are driving inflation and increasing dissatisfaction with governments... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Will Rising Food Prices Threaten Future Investments?</link>
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<title>Crisis communications: playing the cards youre dealt (By Malan Rietveld)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:25:21 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[When the attacks on the World Trade Center happened on 11 September 2001, Wall Street &ndash; only a single Manhattan block away &ndash; shut down immediately and remained closed for a number of days.&nbsp;The Federal Reserve, whose New York branch &ndash; the nerve centre of the central bank&rsquo;s extensive engagement with the global financial system &ndash; is located equally close to the scene of the tragedy, managed to get a simple, but incredibly effective message out within minutes, via its website: &ldquo;The Federal Reserve System is open and operating... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Crisis communications: playing the cards youre dealt</link>
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<title>Dollar über alles? (By Darrell Delamaide)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:38:39 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Egypt crisis highlights US currency role as safe havenWith the fate of Hosni Mubarak hanging in the balance, investors took a new look at the attractiveness of US assets, giving a firmer touch to the dollar despite general worries about financing America's budget and current account deficits.Renewed evidence of the dollar's appeal as a 'haven currency' formed a backdrop to the continuing discussion about the dollar&rsquo;s future as a reserve currency. For instance, Israeli central bank governor Stanley Fischer, who held a US passport much of his life, said on a panel at Davos last week that his country is diversifying its reserve currencies and others are likely to be doing the same... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Dollar über alles?</link>
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<title>Labours pugilist may turn out to have exaggerated Britains economic woes (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:21:14 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Ed Balls, the UK opposition Labour Party&rsquo;s great new hope for a revival in its fortunes, is the man behind two clear choices which positively marked the economic policies of the Labour-run governments between 1997 and 2010. These were the decisions to give the Bank of England operational control of British interest rates and to keep the UK out of the euro after it was introduced in 1999. Unfortunately, he is also the person who &ndash; as economic adviser to Gordon Brown during his 10 years as Chancellor of the Exchequer - did much to encourage his former boss to inflate public spending... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Labours pugilist may turn out to have exaggerated Britains economic woes</link>
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<title>Different planet? (By Darrell Delamaide)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:44:19 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Fed: Made in USA inflation remains lowAs oil and food prices shoot upwards around the world, markets have grown nervous about inflation. Federal Reserve officials, however, serenely assure the US public that it&rsquo;s not a problem.&ldquo;Are the Fed and the public on different planets?&rdquo; Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart asked not so rhetorically in a speech this week in Alabama, noting a number of headlines worrying about inflation.In Congress, as Fed chairman Ben Bernanke made his first appearance in the House of Representatives since it came under Republican control, one lawmaker anxiously waved a Wall Street Journal with the headline &ldquo;Inflation worries spread... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Different planet?</link>
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<title>Surprise what surprise? Axel Webers departure was inevitable (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:02:55 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Merkel has made a mess of the ECB succession – but don’t blame the Bundesbank for thatAxel Weber&rsquo;s departure combined with his self-exclusion from the ECB presidential selection process has been labelled a surprise. It should not be one. Weber is an academic who was not the previous German government&rsquo;s first choice when the Bundesbank presidency became vacant in 2004. He can hardly be criticised for seeking to resume life outside central banking. It was not a secret that, as an arch-defender of Bundesbank-style monetary orthodoxy, he was displeased with the ECB&rsquo;s growing politicisation, and had no wish to take part in the horse-trading that forms part of an ECB chief&rsquo;s job... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Surprise what surprise? Axel Webers departure was inevitable</link>
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<title>Weidmann marks tide of change for Bundesbank (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:19:41 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[French-speaking prowess may build bridges with ParisThe appointment of Jens Weidmann as president of the German Bundesbank from 1 May as the successor to Axel Weber marks a significant change in the politics and psychology of central banking in Europe. But not principally for the reasons the critics say. Commentators make much of Weidmann&rsquo;s closeness to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and claim this could diminish the Bundesbank&rsquo;s vaunted independence. However, more importantly, he is the youngest-ever Bundesbank president... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Weidmann marks tide of change for Bundesbank</link>
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<title>Will the shadows lift from Libyan Investment Authority? (By Malan Rietveld)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:37:39 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[A number of sovereign funds have taken steps in recent year to increase transparency about their motives, objectives and investments. The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is not one of them. Could this change if Muammar Gaddafi's reign comes to end?It is fair to say that nobody outside the Gaddafi family, its inner circle and the management of the fund (which includes officials from the central bank and the Gaddafi government) has an accurate view of the LIA&rsquo;s overall portfolio, which is rumoured to be worth between $40bn and $80bn &ndash; depending on whom you talk to... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Will the shadows lift from Libyan Investment Authority?</link>
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<title>Germany can profit from package deal over Draghi nomination (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:43:37 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Interest rates must rise sooner rather than later in euro areaIn recent months it became reasonably obvious that nominating a German as head of the European Central Bank (ECB) was not going to work. Above all, this would not have served Germany&rsquo;s own interests. By pulling out of the race earlier this month, Bundesbank president Axel Weber has behaved consistently and honourably.&nbsp; Although she may not have realised it straight away, he has done German Chancellor Angela Merkel a favour. The way is now open for the ECB to return to the path of monetary normalcy quicker than expected... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Germany can profit from package deal over Draghi nomination</link>
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<title>Germany on ECBs mind as it pushes ahead towards tighter money (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:40:12 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[It&rsquo;s happening quicker than I thought. Last Thursday&rsquo;s stronger-than-expected statement on inflation from Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank (ECB) president, paves the way for Europe to start monetary tightening next month, compared with the timing of May or June that I predicted last week. Yet my forecast last week was well ahead of the earlier market consensus view that the ECB would wait until the summer before starting to return to a semblance of monetary normalcy. What has happened to speed everything up?A series of factors are combining to produce a new environment for monetary rate-setting... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Germany on ECBs mind as it pushes ahead towards tighter money</link>
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<title>Is peripheral Europe being pushed to its limit? (By Marina Shargorodska)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:23:51 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[The decision to raise interest rates by the ECB seems directed at least in part at the German people who are, theoretically, to be tempted into some form of greater economic union with the rest of the Eurozone. It shows that European institutions can be counted on to preserve German ideology regarding financial markets. Greater economic integration could eventually set the stage for the issuance of Eurozone bonds,&nbsp; which would allow weaker countries to leverage off of the fiscal strength of the Germans... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Is peripheral Europe being pushed to its limit?</link>
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<title>The Fed opens the door a little further (By Malan Rietveld)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:29:46 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[The Federal Reserve has taken another big step towards modern best practice in central bank communication and transparency. Starting 27 April, the Fed chairman will, on four occasions every year, brief the press on the central bank&rsquo;s thinking, particularly around the changes to its forecasts. In truth, the move is overdue - the Fed was the only G7 central bank that did not provide direct, scheduled discussions of its forecasts. The latest move is part of a longer process that Ben Bernanke, who has been chairman of the Federal Reserve since 2006, initiated to enhance communication with the public &ndash; or at least make it more routine... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#The Fed opens the door a little further</link>
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<title>Angela Merkel's tenuous hold on power (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:35:15 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Sunday&rsquo;s regional election results in Germany &ndash; paving the way for the anti-nuclear Green ecology party to take control of the traditionally conservative industrial stronghold of Baden-W&uuml;rttemberg &ndash; lower further Chancellor Angela Merkel&rsquo;s tenuous hold on power&nbsp; and will harden Germany&rsquo;s bargaining line over economic and monetary union (EMU).In particular, the fresh blow to Merkel&rsquo;s standing with the German electorate may encourage the Berlin government to dig in its heels over selecting the new president of the European Central Bank during the summer... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Angela Merkel's tenuous hold on power</link>
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<title>Axel Weber's lack of "solidarity" (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:24:12 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[It&rsquo;s never a good idea if a major difference of opinion between the government and the central bank emerges into the public eye. But that is what is happening in Germany, as the result of a critical behind-the-scenes tussle between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Axel Weber.Last week was a tough time for Merkel, framed by the massive setback for her Christian Democrat party. She made it worse last Thursday by launching an unmistakable broadside at Weber in a landmark speech at a high-profile banking conference in Berlin, indirectly accusing the Bundesbank chief of a lack of &ldquo;solidarity&rdquo; with other European states over the future of Economic and Monetary Union... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Axel Weber's lack of "solidarity"</link>
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<title>BRICS move to downsize dollar (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:38:27 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[BOAO, China — China and four other leading high-growth economies have taken landmark steps toward lowering the importance of the dollar in international financial transactions — part of a seminal shift in the move towards a multicurrency reserve and trading system.  This was one of the conclusions of a summit meeting of the so-called BRICS economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in the resort town of Sanya in southern China last week. Leave aside the whimsical acronyms. The addition of South Africa to the former BRICS format seems to have galvanised the grouping... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#BRICS move to downsize dollar</link>
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<title>Weidmann dons hawkish plumage (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 May 2011 12:35:56 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[The changing of the guard at the Bundesbank is an event of practical significance as well as ritualistic solemnity. The German central bank has ceded to the European Central Bank its former role at the fulcrum of European money, yet its new head Jens Weidmann is the most important person after ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet on the bank&rsquo;s 23-member decision-making council.&nbsp;Weidmann, who bears a striking physical resemblance to a younger Helmut Schlesinger, the former Bundesbank president, took over on 1 May from Axel Weber after previously serving five years as Chancellor Angela Merkel&rsquo;s economic adviser... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Weidmann dons hawkish plumage</link>
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<title>Osama bin Ladens “economic war” (By Marina Shargorodska)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 05 May 2011 17:30:55 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[For a little while earlier this week it felt like the US had won the war on terror. The elimination of Osama bin Laden by a US Navy Seals attack force was the culmination of a 10 year manhunt. &nbsp;It made for great media and it made quite a few people feel better even as it opened old wounds. But victory will require more than this.&nbsp;We should not forget that bin Laden explicitly intended to goad the US into unwise geopolitical decisions that would lead to &ldquo;economic collapse&rdquo;. In terms of this war bin Laden appears to winning... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Osama bin Ladens “economic war”</link>
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<title>Greece and Bundesbank: an intriguing combination (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 May 2011 12:08:34 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[As speculation swirls that Greece &ndash; the eighth largest economy in the 17-nation euro area &ndash; may be about to restructure debt or even countenance leaving monetary union, some intriguing changes are under way at the helm of Germany&rsquo;s independent Bundesbank.Jens Weidmann, the new Bundesbank president, who took over on 1 May from Axel Weber, looks set to preside over an effective reestablishment of the German central bank&rsquo;s traditional dominant role on the European monetary scene... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Greece and Bundesbank: an intriguing combination</link>
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<title>Horse-trading over IMF post intensifies (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 May 2011 09:02:52 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[As Dominique Strauss-Kahn gives a new meaning to the IMF&rsquo;s programs of enhanced surveillance, international horse-trading is intensifying over who should replace the Fund&rsquo;s disgraced former managing director. It would seem a thoroughly good thing for a representative of one of the emerging economies to take over the job. With his bail release to a safe address in Manhattan, Strauss-Kahn&rsquo;s noble yet distinctly lived-in features are due to be banished at least temporarily from our TV screens... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Horse-trading over IMF post intensifies</link>
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<title>Trichets European debt to Houdini (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:57:45 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Retiring ECB chief: the master escapologistIn a ceremony last week accepting a prize for European integration in the German city of Aachen, Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, named the European thinkers down the ages who have given him inspiration. Erasmus, William Penn, Immanuel Kant, Victor Hugo, Isaac Newton, Robert Schuman, Max Weber, Jean Monnet, Paul Val&eacute;ry.&nbsp;One name was missing. Harry Houdini.&nbsp;The Hungarian-born American escapologist (real name Erik Weisz), who wowed millions with his miraculous stunts at the beginning of the last century, deserves at least a mention in Trichet&rsquo;s roll call of honour... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Trichets European debt to Houdini</link>
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<title>Pound clutches to third spot (By Marina Shargorodska)</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:52:59 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Pound remains rather than re-emerges as a major reserve currencyMuch has been made of currency diversification among central banks. Will the Chinese dump dollars and promote use of the Yuan? Will SDR’s become a true reserve currency? What about bringing Gold back into the mix? All of these questions will take time to answer. Several things are clear. While reserves are being accumulated rapidly the USD has been slightly declining as a share of importance. But interestingly enough the EUR has not been gaining here... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Pound clutches to third spot</link>
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<title>The big loser from Euro wrangling is EMUs overall credibility (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:11:18 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[The German government and the European Central Bank realise that the big loser from the skirmishing over the euro&rsquo;s future will be overall public trust in the European monetary project.Nerves and tempers are fraying in Berlin and Frankfurt over conditions applied by the German parliament last Friday for new loans to Greece. Wolfgang Sch&auml;uble, finance minister, insists that making private sector creditors share in the cost of a new financing package for Greece is the only way of securing political backing for fresh bail-out loans... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#The big loser from Euro wrangling is EMUs overall credibility</link>
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<title>Germans start euro retreat (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:54:26 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Two years ago, at a semi-official &nbsp;Anglo-German meeting with financial and business figures in London, I asked a well-known German bank chairman how he would react if Greece was one day asked to leave the euro. This was an open question and answer session in front of about 50 people. &lsquo;I would act like Clint Eastwood,&rsquo; my banker friend said, good humouredly. &lsquo;I would say, &ldquo;Go ahead, make my day.&rdquo;&rsquo;In truth, there&rsquo;s not a great deal of love lost between the Germans at the core of the euro and the outlying states... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Germans start euro retreat</link>
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<title>Europes convergence game between the Cold War and the euro (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:46:21 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[The Cold War and the euro are, when you come to think of it, more or less the same thing.When the European single currency was introduced in 1999, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl hyped it as &ldquo;a question of war and peace.&rdquo; Given the parallels, it&rsquo;s hardly surprising that politicians and central bankers throughout the euro crisis have frequently turned to the language of &ldquo;mutually assured destruction&rdquo; to try to get their way. The idea is simple. To persuade others to avoid certain courses of action that would allegedly provoke awful consequences... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Europes convergence game between the Cold War and the euro</link>
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<title>Asia torn between European incompetence and American cynicism (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:10:25 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Please read, too, the accompanying two briefing notes on the euro after the Greek rescue packagehttp://www.omfif.org/downloads/OMFIF EMU briefing 010811 part one.pdfhttp://www.omfif.org/downloads/OMFIF EMU briefing 010811 part two.pdfIn frequently contorted negotiations with the Italian government, Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, liked to say she never knew whether Rome officials&rsquo; studied vagueness and multiple opacities were due to incompetence or guile. In trying to assess the impact on their economies of the structural disarray behind the two main world currencies &ndash; the dollar and the euro &ndash; officials in Asian central banks and finance ministries are in much the same position... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Asia torn between European incompetence and American cynicism</link>
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<title>Picking a fight with the Bundesbank can be dangerous for ECB health (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:43:47 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Dissent at the ECBTo paraphrase Oscar Wilde: to pick a fight with one Bundesbank president might appear a misfortune, to take on two of them looks like carelessness. With just three months of his remaining tenure at the European Central Bank ahead of him, president Jean-Claude Trichet is now facing a second tussle of authority with the most powerful central bank among his shareholders. Last night&rsquo;s statement from the European Central Bank about activating its &lsquo;securities market programme&rsquo; &ndash; which was somewhat half-hearted about any commitment to purchasing Italian and Spanish bonds &ndash; is unlikely to dispel doubts about ECB unity... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Picking a fight with the Bundesbank can be dangerous for ECB health</link>
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<title>Sending in the water cannon (David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:55:18 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[ECB calls in the riot squadWhen legendary New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary was asked why he&rsquo;d climbed Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, in 1953, he gave a laconic Kiwi reply: &lsquo;Because it was there.&rsquo; Similarly, a young English hooligan told a BBC reporter why he had looted shops during last week&rsquo;s English riots: &lsquo;Because no one stopped me.&rsquo; In both episodes, logical openings paved the way for certain actions. In the first case, heroic; in the second case, criminal... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Sending in the water cannon</link>
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<title>As the Germans prepare for unpalatable decisions, the EMU virus is closing in on Berlin (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:43:04 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[The imposing but sometimes difficult-to-fathom edifice of Germany since the Second World War has been built on a central foundation of international politics: that the Germans should never have to take hard decisions in choosing between intrinsically contradictory alternatives. As a result of the growing, perhaps terminal strains in economic and monetary union (EMU), that foundation is now starting to crumble. In coming months, Germany may have to make an agonising choice: &nbsp;stable money or European integration... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#As the Germans prepare for unpalatable decisions, the EMU virus is closing in on Berlin</link>
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<title>Collective leadership for ECB (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:41:42 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[During the past two years of euro-crisis escalation, the European Central Bank&nbsp; generally has won high marks for competence. Yet the picture has darkened since early summer. So it&rsquo;s time for the ECB to appear in public with collective leadership and a more cohesive voice.Up to a few months ago, the ECB benefited from the failure of European politicians to recognise the scale of the euro&rsquo;s&nbsp; difficulties and tackle them with the right firepower. The ECB was Europe&rsquo;s sole fully functioning crisis manager... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Collective leadership for ECB</link>
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<title>Swiss National Bank declares war on foreign exchange market (By Marina Shargorodska)</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:49:31 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Of all the moves by central banks since the beginning of the credit crisis in 2008 I think the most dramatic was taken by SNB president Philipp Hildebrand earlier this week. In drawing a line in the sand at 1.20 to the EUR and announcing that the SNB was ready to make unlimited purchases to support that level, he has declared war on a cunning and powerful opponent: the foreign exchange market. Of all the financial markets, the foreign exchange market is the largest and most difficult to resist. Central Banks of large countries like Japan have often failed in their attempts to contain market pressures... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Swiss National Bank declares war on foreign exchange market</link>
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<title>Starks departure: an historic step for German central banking (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:38:04 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[For nearly a century, German central banking history has been studded with spectacular personnel departures, often with fateful consequences that cross the barrier between money and politics. Sometimes, in a country where the intertwining influence of central banking and government has been a deeply serious business for many years, the consequences are a matter of war and peace. Set against this background, Friday&rsquo;s announcement of J&uuml;rgen Stark&rsquo;s resignation from the European Central Bank is one more milestone in a long and dramatic line of central banking dismissals, deaths, reversals and retreats in Europe&rsquo;s most important economy... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Starks departure: an historic step for German central banking</link>
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<title>Euro has become a political football for US, Chinese (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:22:58 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[He came, he saw, he castigated.What a pleasingly lordly duty for the American treasury secretary to turn up in Poland and rebuke the finest of Europe&rsquo;s finance over their painful failure to resolve the euro debt crisis.Forty years after John Connally, Treasury Secretary under President Richard Nixon, famously told European finance ministers in Rome the dollar was &ldquo;our currency but your problem&rdquo;, Tim Geithner says the euro has become a problem for the whole world. Connally&rsquo;s heir lectured the latest generation of finance ministers in Wroclaw on Friday that they should stop squabbling with the European Central Bank and curb a &ldquo;catastrophic risk&rdquo; to financial stability... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Euro has become a political football for US, Chinese</link>
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<title>Gold standard test looms as Greek debt worries swirl at IMF meeting (David Marsh in Washington)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:44:22 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Eighty years ago, Britain left the gold standard. It reminds you of some of the things going on today.Read the front page of the Financial Times of 21 September 1931, for instance, a day after the move. &ldquo;The step now taken is due solely to heavy withdrawals of sterling by foreigners. Their exaggerated fears have brought about the new situation.&rdquo;Well that&rsquo;s all right then. Elsewhere, one reads: &ldquo;Temporary step only&hellip;.There is in no sense a crisis. Internally the affairs of the country will proceed along normal lines... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Gold standard test looms as Greek debt worries swirl at IMF meeting</link>
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<title>Hurdles lie ahead on EFSF leveraging (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:50:50 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Last week&rsquo;s German parliament vote on expanding the powers and scope of the &euro;440bn euro rescue fund does little more than bring the Germans up to the point many thought they&rsquo;d already reached on 21 July when European leaders agreed to broaden the EFSF.&nbsp;While politicians in the last two months have indulged in that essential and immortal characteristic of Europe &ndash; long holidays &ndash; the markets have moved dramatically further towards pricing in a Greek default. And, predictably, Greece has shunted several steps backwards... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Hurdles lie ahead on EFSF leveraging</link>
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<title>Bernanke  is fighting the wrong battle (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:44:02 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Last week Fed chairman Ben Bernanke lectured the Chinese over alleged renminbi obduracy, claiming they were blocking worldwide recovery by refusing to allow the currency to revalue. The Chinese are easy targets. More difficult, but more worthwhile, would be to focus attention on a wider issue of world-wide currency distortions reflected in the under-valuation of the euro.&nbsp;By going after the renminbi, Bernanke is maybe trying to boost his approval rating from US law-makers. But the Fed chairman has got the wrong adversary in his sights... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Bernanke  is fighting the wrong battle</link>
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<title>Time to set up the Non-Eurogroup (By David Owen and David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:48:36 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[A new way to preserve European unityThe two-year old euro sovereign debt crisis is entering a very dangerous phase. Whatever happens in the stand-off pitting Greece and other indebted countries against their creditors, the relationship between the European Union&rsquo;s members and non-members of economic and monetary union (EMU) seems set for far-reaching change. Given the great uncertainties facing the euro area, it is time for Britain, Poland, Sweden and the other Emu non-adherents to formalise their position by establishing the &lsquo;non-Eurogroup&rsquo; (NEG) as a central, constructive element of the EU... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Time to set up the Non-Eurogroup</link>
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<title>Why the creditors dont want to join the EMU debt club (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:37:52 +0100</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[At a lecture here in Prague last week [click here for details], I quoted Marx and Stalin, not the most popular names in the sturdily post-Communist Czech Republic. All this happened in the week when the euro spotlight shine fiercely on neighbouring Slovakia, and when the incoming German replacement for J&uuml;rgen Stark on the European Central Bank (ECB) board declared robustly that he was retreating from Bundesbank-style German monetary orthodoxy.&nbsp;All of which means that ever-rising costs of bailing out deficit countries throughout the euro area will be borne increasingly &nbsp;by the people who suspected they were going to pay for it all along &ndash; German taxpayers... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Why the creditors dont want to join the EMU debt club</link>
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<title>OMFIF ANALYSIS OF DEPARTING ECB PRESIDENTS SPEECHES (By David Marsh and Fredrik Kinell)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:11:03 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Trichet’s vocabulary displays adaptability to changing financial moodsJean-Claude Trichet, who steps down on 31 October after eight adventurous years atop the European Central Bank, has shown himself a supremely flexible master of monetary phraseology, ably adapting his statements to shifting financial market moods.&nbsp; A central banker who in the first four years of his mandate praised the role of the ECB in generating jobs and extolled European financial integration as a force for stability has virtually dropped those terms from his vocabulary... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#OMFIF ANALYSIS OF DEPARTING ECB PRESIDENTS SPEECHES</link>
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<title>European debt rescue could pave way for renminbi borrowing (By David Marsh in Beijing)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:09:40 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[In the wake of last week&rsquo;s new deal on European debt, China is serving up a steely reminder to Europe: you may have to start borrowing in renminbi to gain a sympathetic hearing from the world's largest creditor. Already officially enshrined as bankers to the world&rsquo;s biggest debtor, the US, the Chinese have no wish to become, too, a last-ditch lender to the Europeans. The idea of renminbi borrowing has been put forward by Beijing advisers and officials as a way of lowering Chinese foreign exchange risks caused by further exposure to Europe - and also of using the Europeans&rsquo; latest discomfiture to advance China's international monetary policy agenda... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#European debt rescue could pave way for renminbi borrowing</link>
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<title>Ten pieces of advice for Mario Draghi (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:07:08 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Mario Draghi, the urbane and experienced former governor of the Banca d&rsquo;Italia, takes over today as president of the European Central Bank at a crucial time. The resolution of the Greek debt crisis has turned a corner after last week&rsquo;s Brussels deal. This puts the spotlight firmly on Italy.&nbsp; Here are ten pieces of advice for the incoming boss.1.&nbsp;Take to heart Clausewitz&rsquo;s (paraphrased) doctrine: &ldquo;Monetary union is the continuation of war by other means.&rdquo; Adopt a military-strategic approach to your job... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Ten pieces of advice for Mario Draghi</link>
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<title>Clash of civilizations and the collapse of European credibility (By David Marsh in Singapore)</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:40:07 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[The clash of civilizations displayed by the disarray in the euro area is not just between stern Germany and profligate, go-it-alone Greece. The gulf shows up, too, in the stunned incomprehension among Asian monetary specialists and financial officials towards the shortcomings that have allowed the Europeans so completely to lose control of what was until a short time ago a prized project for continent-wide integration.&nbsp;In a week of conversations with leading players in China, Malaysia and Singapore, I have heard an unprecedented litany of charges against the elite of European decision-making... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Clash of civilizations and the collapse of European credibility</link>
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<title>Technocrats in Europe must show they can act - and communicate (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:13:53 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[T-Time in Europe. It's time for technocrats.&nbsp; Lucas Papademos has become caretaker Greek prime minister. Mario Monti, the former European commissioner and president of Bocconi University, has been asked to form a government in Rome after the unlamented departure of Silvio Berlusconi.&nbsp; J&uuml;rgen Stark and Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, important personalities on the board of the European Central Bank, are both leaving at end-December, well before expiry of their terms. Who knows whether some form of political office beckons for them? We will no doubt see and hear more of them in the New Year... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Technocrats in Europe must show they can act - and communicate</link>
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<title>As Euro dream turns sour, single currency may divide into two (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:18:14 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Not more Europe, but 'more Euro' is the answerThe euro was supposed to buttress peace, prosperity, jobs and stability not just in the Old Continent, but across the world. Rarely, if ever, can a monetary project developed to produce so many positive outcomes have become so quickly subverted into a hideous contradiction of the original plan. The answer is not &lsquo;more Europe&rsquo; &ndash; as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with a touch of mysticism, keeps saying &ndash; but, instead, &lsquo;more Euro&rsquo;... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#As Euro dream turns sour, single currency may divide into two</link>
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<title>ECB may be last one standing on a field of ruins (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:26:54 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Who will blink first? In games of chicken on railway lines, at least one chicken ends up decapitated. The triple stand-off between the European Central Bank, European governments and the financial markets is building up to fever-pitch.&nbsp; We appear to be heading for a re-run of the fateful times nearly 20 years ago &ndash; at the height of the September 1992 exchange rate mechanism crisis &ndash; when President Fran&ccedil;ois Mitterrand browbeat Chancellor Helmut Kohl into urging the Bundesbank, after much tergiversation, to defend the French franc... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#ECB may be last one standing on a field of ruins</link>
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<title>Draghi, Weidmann fit the landscape (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:34:48 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Central bankers have fallback in case things go wrongAt a time of monumental transition in Europe&rsquo;s 13-year-old experiment of economic and monetary union (EMU), the destinies of the two figures at the top of Europe&rsquo;s most powerful central banks, Mario Draghi and Jens Weidmann, are inextricably intertwined. Draghi took over the presidency of the European Central Bank on 1 November, Weidmann at the Bundesbank on 1 May.&nbsp; As Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy meet in Paris today at the start of yet another crunch week for the single currency, Draghi and Weidmann appear to fit into the troubled monetary landscape better than their predecessors... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Draghi, Weidmann fit the landscape</link>
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<title>Inconvenient Euro-truths: Ten facts you need to know about Germany, Britain and EMU (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:09:05 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[As UK builds trade ties with EMU, Germany is integrating with non-euro areaThe welter of publicity about the latest European Union summit and the supposed &lsquo;isolation&rsquo; of the UK from the rest of Europe demonstrates a lack of knowledge about some central features of economic and monetary union (EMU). British Prime Minister David Cameron&rsquo;s refusal to agree a euro rescue plan built around a new European treaty, although important in UK political terms, is almost completely irrelevant to the longer-term discussions on the euro&rsquo;s future... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Inconvenient Euro-truths: Ten facts you need to know about Germany, Britain and EMU</link>
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<title>ECB reshuffle shows Draghi will be his own man (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:25:21 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Key portfolios go to Cœuré and PraetAs economic and monetary union (EMU) prepares for its most bruising year yet, the European Central Bank is battening down the hatches with personnel moves that underline President Mario Draghi&rsquo;s determination to be his own man.By turning down Germany&rsquo;s request for the ECB economics portfolio to be handed to newcomer J&ouml;rg Asmussen, former state secretary at the Berlin finance ministry, the former Banca d&rsquo;Italia chief is wisely breaking with the 13-1/2-year-old year tradition that the post should be held by a German... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#ECB reshuffle shows Draghi will be his own man</link>
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<title>In April, the cruellest month, France and euro may face crunch (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:39:33 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Fatal political contradictions between Sarkozy and Merkel: French and German politics are moving in diametrically opposite directionsThe lesson of history is that French elections early in the year often coincide with financial unrest. Spring 2012 may prove to be particularly bloody. For France and perhaps for the rest of Europe, April may in fact be &lsquo;the cruellest month&rsquo;. Of the three principal candidates heading to fight the French presidential elections, the first round of which is on 22 April, the most pro-euro contender appears to be, somewhat astoundingly, the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#In April, the cruellest month, France and euro may face crunch</link>
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<title>Hildebrand does the right thing (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:42:53 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[A question of standards and judgmentPhilipp Hildebrand is an intelligent and resourceful man. Pleasant and thoughtful, too. He has done the right thing by departing as chairman of the Swiss National Bank. He has certainly demonstrated flaws. His resignation statements suggest he still doesn&rsquo;t understand what he did wrong. I know and like Hildebrand. But, on his past days&rsquo; showing, I wouldn&rsquo;t want him anywhere near my defence team if I got into a legal scrape.At a time when central banks all over the world have become far more active and much more exposed to publicity as a result of the financial crisis and its aftermath, central bankers have to show almost superhuman probity in all their financial dealings... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Hildebrand does the right thing</link>
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<title>And then there were four… (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:23:25 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[After the French downgrade, things could start to go downhill in Europe: Five top-rated European countries outside EMU – and only four insideSeldom in monetary history will an event so frequently forecast and so intrinsically banal have triggered such far-reaching consequences. Standard &amp; Poor&rsquo;s downgrading of France from Triple A status is of monumental significance. From now on, things could start to go downhill in a big way.Forget the ringing declarations of Franco-German solidarity, the ritual denunciation of rating agencies as Anglo-Saxon dark forces and the stalwart Parisian affirmations of 'business as usual'... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#And then there were four…</link>
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<title>Germany sticks to stability (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:30:50 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Policy in Berlin: ‘Keep calm and carry on’German Chancellor Angela Merkel will mount a stout defence of soundness, solidity and stability when she opens the Davos conference in Switzerland this week. Although sentiment on European bond markets improved last week, her statement represents only the tip of a very spiky iceberg towards which the monetary ship of the European single currency may still be steaming. The imbroglio around a barely-avoidable Greek sovereign default could soon take on a nightmarish hue... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Germany sticks to stability</link>
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<title>Starting French campaign, Socialist candidate Hollande pledges: My adversary is finance ()</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:35:20 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[‘Germany will not remain strong in a weak Europe, and it will not remain rich in a Europe that is poor’Fran&ccedil;ois Hollande, the candidate for the Socialist party in France who is leading the opinion polls ahead of the presidential election on April/May, proposed on 22 January sweeping reforms of the European and French financial systems to combat speculation and restore growth. In particular, he suggested splitting the investment and commercial banking operations of French banks, similar to the recommendations of the UK Independent Commission on Banking last year... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Starting French campaign, Socialist candidate Hollande pledges: My adversary is finance</link>
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<title>Germany enters French election campaign (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:53:26 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Merkel’s go-for-Sarkozy gambleOn the eve of yet another European summit to shore up the single currency, Germany has dramatically entered the campaign for the French presidential elections this spring.French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in a televised interview last night, referred constantly to German economic prowess as the benchmark for France&rsquo;s own performance. Both he and (in a separate TV debate on Thursday) Fran&ccedil;ois Hollande, the Socialist candidate in the April/May presidential poll, lauded Gerhard Schr&ouml;der, the former German chancellor, who inaugurated unpopular but effective economic reforms to improve German competitiveness... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#Germany enters French election campaign</link>
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<title>A convoluted London affair (By David Marsh)</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:18:46 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Huhne resignation further weakens Cameron’s European holdIn European public life, there are some reassuringly fixed behavioural laws. If ministers or top officials in Germany or Switzerland have to resign, as recent examples have shown, it's nearly always about principle or money. In Britain, when such departures happen, sex is never far away. So it was on Friday when high-flying Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne, energy minister in David Cameron&rsquo;s coalition, was forced to step down from the British cabinet... ]]></description>
<link>http://www.omfif.org/blog#A convoluted London affair</link>
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