Eight more days to save the euro

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota London (CNN) – We are now on Day Two of Olli Rehn’s 10 days to save the euro and the tempo is heating up.Mario Draghi, the new European Central Bank president, has tantalizingly hinted he will do more to help out provided euro-member countries start the process of economic unification. As he put it, the sequence of events matters. In our language: Don’t put the horse before the cart.For Europe’s leaders the promise that the ECB will ride to the rescue is sweet music, perhaps even for Germany’s Merkel and the Bundesbank who are demanding a move to...

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UK strikes biggest since '89? Doubt it.

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota London (CNN) – I’m reading that the public sector walk out to hit the UK on Wednesday will be the biggest strikes in Britain since 1989 - since the Margaret Thatcher era. One union says it will be a historic day.In the 21 years I lived in London, I’ve seen transportation crippled, schools emptied, streets blocked by strikers and demonstrators. But the unions are telling us we ain’t seen nothing yet.I’m not convinced. Yes, something like two million people will be on strike and tens of thousands are expected to march. But it will be peaceful. I don’t...

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Indian traders strike over retail reform

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota New Delhi, India (CNN) – Traders shuttered shops and markets through India Thursday to protest the federal announcement to open the country's $450 billion retail market to foreign competition.The move came as lawmakers opposed to the plan paralyzed the national parliament for yet another day."Our strike shows how angry indigenous traders are," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which led slogan-shouting demonstrations in New Delhi.He said the arrival of global supermarkets would eliminate...

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India looks to balance China trade

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota Editor's note: "Along the Silk Road" is a weekly segment on Global Exchange, that will explore the burgeoning trade and investment links from the Middle East to Asia. Watch Global Exchange, on CNN International, Sunday to Thursday 1100 ET, 1600 GMT and 1700 CET.Gujarat, India (CNN) –  A prolonged economic slump in the West has prompted India to broaden its economic ties and look east - to China.Indian exports to China jumped nearly 70% last year, according to an Indian research report. It was partly on account of a loosening of export controls to...

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Can the 'badly designed' euro fail?

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota London (CNN) - Sir Mervyn King’s words today are chilling. The eurozone crisis is “extraordinarily serious and threatening” the Governor of the Bank of England said, and the UK’s central bank was drawing up contingency plans in case the zone breaks up.This is the icing on the cake that has seen more and more politicians and commentators postulate the unthinkable: a breakup of the zone and the currency. The Economist starts this week’s lead article “even as the eurozone hurtles towards a crash.”For some weeks now I have believed that such an event...

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Eurogeddon: The 10 failures of EU leaders

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota London (CNN) – Just like the credit crunch three years ago, the current eurozone crisis will no doubt spawn endless books and provide many an interesting case study for the world’s future economists. Whether the lessons will be learned and future crises avoided depends largely on whether you believe history repeats itself. And that’s another topic that divides opinion as much as the eurozone itself.Already academics at Oxford University’s Centre for International Studies have identified 10 key failures of Europe’s leaders in how they have handled...

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Parliamentary stalemate as India's retail battle continues

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota New Delhi, India (CNN) - India's federal government is facing ongoing disruption as the battle continues over its decision to allow foreign supermarkets into the nation's $450 billion retail market.The uproar by lawmakers forced an abrupt adjournment of India's parliament for another day Tuesday. The impasse has also been stalling key legislative business, including the passage of an anti-corruption bill. An all-party meeting to end the deadlock has also failed.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meanwhile, is defending last week’s decision to allow international...

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Public sector corruption stymies eurozone debt crisis relief

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota Greece and Italy are perceived as corruption-tainted and this is hampering efforts to tackle the eurozone crisis, a new report suggests.According to corruption watchdog Transparency International, the two countries at the center of the debt crisis scored poorly on the group’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index. On a scale of ten, Greece scored 3.4 and Italy 3.9, ranking 80 and 69, respectively, on the list of 183 countries.The Corruption Perception Index ranks countries according to their perceived levels of corruption in the...

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