CONTINENTAL SHIFT: Safeguarding the UK’s financial trade in a changing Europe, By Stephen Booth, Christopher Howarth, Mats Persson, Vincenzo Scarpetta, December 2011, Open Europe, http://www.openeurope.org.uk/researc...entalshift.pdf
Luck May Be Key Ingredient for EU Leaders’ Latest Blueprint to Save Euro, By Simon Kennedy, December 12, 2011 3:59 AM EST, Bloomberg News, http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/201...s%2Feconomy%2FFirstly, the UK's level of influence on new European financial rules has decreased; regulation is now less geared to financial services growth but more towards curtailing financial market activity, irrespective of whether such activity is good or bad. There are at least 49 new EU regulatory proposals potentially affecting the City of London either in the pipeline or being discussed at the EU-level – while some are justified, very few of these are aimed at promoting financial services trade.
Russia added to oil traders’ risk lists, By Javier Blas, Last updated: December 13, 2011 10:13 am, Financial Times, www.ft.com“Luck is likely to be required,” said Joachim Fels, chief global economist at Morgan Stanley in London.
To have a chance of success, a deal reached after all-night talks on Dec. 9 to restore faith in the single currency requires investors to avoid dumping European debt, Standard & Poor’s to hold off on threatened downgrades, foreign countries to chip in rescue cash and the European Central Bank to soothe bond markets.
Politicians also have to avert the unforced errors that sank previous initiatives and turned a Greek deficit problem in 2009 into a threat to the international financial system.
After a year in which many unusual events hit oil prices – including the collapse of the 42-year long regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya – traders are not ruling out anything and have added Russia to their risk lists.
Russia is the world’s second largest oil producer and recent demonstrations in Moscow have spooked oil investors and traders. On Saturday, tens of thousands took to the streets in the capital to demand a rerun of elections, Russia’s largest opposition demonstration since Boris Yeltsin took on the Supreme Soviet in 1993.The International Energy Agency estimates that Russia oil output hit a post-Soviet high of 10.7m barrels a day in October. But at the same time [...Russian...] oil demand is also rising strongly, hitting nearly 3.5m b/d this year, up 5 per cent from 2010.
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