Nov. 20, 2009 (Erwan Mahe) Of course, everyone thinks they know, since the three officials in question, Mr Trichet (ECB Chairman), Mr Almunia (European Commission on Economic Affaires) and Mr Juncker (President of the European Council of Finance Ministers), have expressed their views on the matter many times in the past few weeks.

The eurozone must contend with the Beggar Thy Neighbour policies of its main trading partners, United States, the United Kingdom and China, which have their own processes distinct to their countries.

And I am leaving aside for the moment the 15% to 20% depreciation in the currencies of peripheral European countries since March.

Nov. 2, 2009 (Erwan Mahe) In a modern economy, credit availability, both in terms of quantity and costs, is a major component in any analysis of future growth potential.

The death of securitisation had earlier choked off the credit flow to the real economy, since it deprived banks of their ability to easily refinance loans by packaging them as bonds, which ended up being sold to investors throughout the world. These packages involved loans to consumers (Credit Card, Mortgages, Student Loans), to businesses (CMBS) and to LBO funds (CLO).

With investors having deserted these products a long time ago, given a lack of confidence in what they viewed as overly complacent (to put it mildly) rating agencies, all these credits remain in bank balance sheets at a time when they are trying to improve their capital ratios, thus, pushing them to either launch a succession of capital increases or to reduce outstanding loan volumes.