Salient to Investors: Marc Nettelbeck at DZ Bank said the entire energy switch has derailed – the difficulties connecting offshore wind farms to the power grid reduces their profitability and renders the original investment calculations of utilities invalid. Marc Oliver Bettzuege at Cologne University said the offshore expansion in Germany
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Economists say a resurgence of the debt crisis is the biggest threat facing Germany in an election year. Thomas Mayer at Deutsche Bank, Holger Schmieding at Berenberg Bank and others say declining sovereign bond yields in countries such as Italy and Ireland should not lull governments across Europe into thinking they can let up
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim Rogers says: Central bank printing unlimited amounts of money is spreading even to Japan and Germany and Europe and has never been good for anyone. Printing money is artificial and ends eventually. Germany will have a lot of good news ahead so that Merkel can win
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: German Q4 2012 GDP shrank 0.6 percent from Q3 versus the 0.5 percent contraction predicted by 47 economists. French and Italian GDP shrank more than forecast. OECD predicts global growth will accelerate to 3.4 percent in 2013. Nick Kounis at ABN Amro Bank said euro-zone GDP growth is likely to have fallen
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: George Soros said: The world still does not fully understand how financial markets work – the established theory has collapsed. Germany is out of tune with the rest of the world in handling the euro crisis. There is a risk of a credit bubble, the big, unresolved
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Shane Brett at AllAboutAlpha writes: The long-term outlook for the US economy is broadly positive with housing stabilized, consumer confidence slowly returning, political instability solved by Obama’s decisive win, and as health spending increases under Obamacare. Cheap domestic energy will continue and the US will seriously expand
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The IMF said: The world economy will grow 3.5 percent in 2013 and 4.1 percent in 2014, versus 3.2 percent in 2012. The euro region will shrink 0.2 percent in 2013, led by Spain and slowing growth in Germany, and grow 1 percent in 2014. The euro region poses a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors, economists and policy makers are starting to warn Germany is turning a blind eye to its own weaknesses. Irwin Collier at Freie Universitaet said it is clear things have to change at home too. The DAX Index rose 29 percent in 2012, its best in 9 years. Juergen
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Paul Ballew at Dun & Bradstreet said the bigger question is that after four years of aggressive monetary policy, whether or not anything else will really make a material difference on the direction of the recovery. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research said its index of investor and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Peter Bofinger at University of Wuerzburg said: Germany would be the biggest loser in a euro breakup. Germany’s national obsession with austerity stems from a misreading of Germany’s recent history. Germans rarely acknowledge how they have benefited from the euro with lower exchange rates and record-low interest rates – the benefit of
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