Elections will be held in Egypt between November 28 and January 10 and the political campaign already began at the beginning of this month. Television is a crucial battleground – some figures suggest that TV is the main source of information for as many as 97 percent of Egyptians – but personal popularity will also be vital; Egyptians are brought up to vote not for great policy platforms but for the people they know and like. Read the rest of this entry »

The coming weeks are of vital importance for the European, and the world , economy. I was in Brussels last week and the sense of urgency was palpable. The French Prime Minister, Francois Fillon spoke of our being on the edge of a volcano that could blow up the EU, and our contract between the generations, unless it was capped.

As the European Commission said last Thursday we need to break the vicious triangle between doubts over

.the sustainability of debt of some countries

.the stability of the banking system and

.growth prospects of developed countries

Unless we find a reasonably convincing way of resolving these doubts, and of breaking the vicious triangle, whereby each doubt aggravates the other, we are in real difficulty.

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