Category Archives: A Few Euros More

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Italian Pension Reform

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The Italian government finally agreed the details of the new penison reform yesterday. Curiously, it does not need to go to parliament for approval. Getting government agreement had not been without difficulty, and again interestingly enough it won’t come into effect for two years, giving next year’s incoming government plenty of time to change its mind.

The reform aims to launch a second pillar of private and occupational schemes to flank state pensions, using money which companies currently hold on behalf of their workers in a fund which employees receive when they leave their job. It will come into force at the same time as a reform of the state pension system which raises the retirement age to 60 from 57. Both measures could be changed or scrapped between now and 2008 by whoever wins the 2006 general election.

Investment Dearth?

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The idea that there was a global savings glut now having gone out of fashion, some are presently arguing that what we have is an investment dearth (my own view is that these two effectively mean the same thing, since the issue is a relational one). More evidence for this investment dearth hypothesis comes today from the UK.

UK Business investment grew sluggishly in the third quarter, official figures showed, confirming survey evidence that British-based companies are cautious about capital spending even though profit levels are high.

As the FT also notes:

Just as in other European countries, companies have decided to save most of the money they have been making rather than risk investment in new opportunities to generate profit in the future. The reluctance of companies to invest when interest rates are low and the return on the existing capital stock is high has puzzled economists for some time.

Dave Altig had a piece earlier in the week about the BoE rate decision wher he tries to put a brave face on the UK data. This investment news is another little bucket of cold water for the upside optimists. I’m more or less neutral here. The monetary policy committee intimate that the weakening of investment intentions “may also reflect uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the economy in the face of sluggish consumer spending and higher energy prices”. Dave concludes that “Perhaps the uncertainty will lift sooner than later”, and I agree, I’m sure it will: I’m just not sure which way the resolution of the quandry will lead us.

Thicker And Thicker

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Well, the Antonio Fazio question seems definitely to have decided that it doesn’t want to go away. The FT today informs us that the European Commission will take legal action before the end of the year against Italy over the allegations that against Fazio ( governor of the Bank of Italy). This threat is, however, not without its own problems since:

the Commission would be suing the Italian government, which has asked Mr Fazio to step down but cannot remove him. Mr Fazio is appointed for an indefinite term and can be removed only by the central bank’s board. Mr Fazio has denied any wrong-doing. On Thursday, he told Bank of Italy employees: “To serve the state independently . . . is the attitude that has always inspired the actions of the central bank.”

“To be independent, or not to be independent, that is the central bank question”

A new history of Europe since 1945.

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The New Yorker: The Critics: Books

Still, “Postwar” can fairly be called an interpretation of European history since 1945, and its thesis can be put in a sentence. It is that Europe was able to rebuild itself politically and economically only by forgetting the past, but it was able to define itself morally and culturally only by remembering it. The forgetting was necessary not just because the behavior of most Europeans under Fascism and Nazi occupation was less admirable than anyone wished to acknowledge—but that was, naturally, a big part of it.

Schyzophrenia Outbreak At The FT?

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I know you should never take what a central banker says at face value, but still. Today Christopher Swann in Washington tells us (in an article entitled: End in sight to the Fed’s rate-tightening cycle – and with no question mark):

For much of the past year and a half the Fed has been running almost on autopilot, with rates being raised from their historic low of 1 per cent in June last year to 4 per cent now in a lockstep of quarter-point moves. None of the economic vicissitudes over the past 18 months – from Hurricane Katrina to surging energy prices – has diverted the Fed from its gradual task of bringing rates to a more neutral level.

But this week’s minutes suggested in the clearest language yet that this task is almost done. In 2006 any further rate rises will have to be justified by surprising economic data, the Fed’s internal discussion appeared to indicate.

For the first time since the rate-tightening began, some of the members of policy-making committee also warned about the dangers of going too far

Meanwhile, back home in the UK, Steve Johnson has this:

“In contrast to the ECB’s caution, comments from the US Federal Reserve hinted at several more rate hikes to come.

Michael Moskow, president of the Chicago Fed, suggested that the Fed funds rate would rise above the “neutral” level expected by the market. “With inflation at the upper end of my comfort zone, an unexpected increase in inflation would be a serious concern.””

So come on lads, get your act together, which is it, almost done, or plenty of juice left in the lemon yet awhile?

Scrambled, Or Sunny-Side Up?

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How would you like your eggs done here sir, scrambled or sunny- side up? Of course my hilarity here may be due to the fact that Huevos in Spanish has a rather different connotation:

A South Korean scientist whose cloning of a dog Time magazine called this year’s most amazing invention resigned on Thursday as head of a global hub for stem-cell work because two members on his team donated egg cells for study.

Crying Wolf At The ECB?

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The always interesting Paul de Grauwe has a piece in the FT today (subscription only unfortunately, but he does collect all his FT pieces on his website here, so it will doubtless appear eventually). Basically he is arguing a view which I agree with: in its enthusiasm for raising interest rates the ECB is overdoing the inflation problem, and not by a little:

Strange things are happening in Frankfurt these days. Barely two weeks ago the European Central Bank issued its monthly bulletin containing an analysis of the perspectives for inflation in the euro area. In a nutshell the story was the following.

Yes, yearly inflation has increased to 2.5 per cent (October 2005) and this is a source of concern for a central bank that has promised to keep inflation below 2 per cent. But, as we all know, a central bank that targets the rate of inflation should be forward-looking and base its interest rate decisions on the expected future rate of inflation. The remarkable thing about the analysis is that, after voicing its concern about current inflation exceeding 2 per cent, it came to the conclusion that the perspectives for future inflation were favourable.

Paul de Grauwe’s work is generally highly commendable, and this presentation of his on the pluses and minuses of the euro is a really good background primer.

Destination Unknown

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While China seems to be badly in need of entering the ‘information society’, Russia seems to be going flat-out in the opposite direction:

Russia moved closer to an effective ban on many foreign non-governmental organisations as its parliament on Wednesday considered a bill that human rights groups have criticised as another step towards a “totally closed society”.

Informational Asymmetries in Harbin

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Whatever the underlying reality behind all the news headlines about ‘panic in Harbin’ one thing is sure, there are plenty of asymmetries pending resolution between the ultra-modern and sophistocated new-technology China and the ‘informationally closed’ political system which breeds a lack of trust and the kinds of over-reaction we are now seeing. China obviously badly needs to ‘modernise’ in the ‘welcome to modernity’ sociological sense. If it doesn’t there will always be the danger of this kind of ‘chain reaction’, and clearly, in the conext of modern integrated financial markets, the consequences could turn out to be particularly unpleasant for everyone involved.

Thousands of residents of Harbin on Wednesday night jammed its railway station and booked out all available flights as a deadly 80km toxic slick made its way down the Songhua river, threatening to poison the north-eastern Chinese city’s water supplies. he slick of benzene and other toxins was leaked into the river, the city’s main source of water, after a series of explosions 10 days ago at a chemicals factory 200km upriver. A mood of distrust and paranoia was spreading through the industrial city of 9m people, sharpened by the local government’s decision to turn off water supplies for four days for fear of an environmental catastrophe.