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The 4.7 billion euro loss at German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp for the fiscal year ending in Sept. 2012. The loss stems mainly from management's bet on a large project to make steel slabs in Brazil and ship it to a plant in the U.S. state of Alabama for finished product of high-grade sheets. The project suffered delays and by the time the Brazilian plant was running in 2010, the strength of the real Brazil's currency and higher wage costs had affected the economics of the plan. Steel demand also slowed in the U.S. The plants which required an investment of 12 billion euros now have a book value of 3.9 billion euros. Thyssen bet too much on one project and it failed. Three management board members who had oversight over the compliance, steel and building technology areas had their contracts terminated, and a new CEO was appointed in 2011. Heinrich Hiesinger, a manager from Siemens AG is the new CEO. ThyssenKrupp's image has been sullied by reports of price fixing of rail tracks and scandals involving the communications head for foreign railroad contracts. Hiesinger says "until recently there has been an understanding of leadership in which old-boy networks and blind loyalty were often more important than the success of the company." He faces a difficult challenge of changing the corporate culture and developing a new strategy. His plans are to turn ThyssenKrupp into a high-tech engineering business by selling the steel mills in Brazil and Alabama, and the stainless steel division to Finiish company Outokumpu Oyj. This will shrink steel from 41% of sales to 30%. To implement this strategy Hiesinger needs a capital increase. This runs into problems as the Krupps Foundation headed by Berthold Beitz, which controls 25% of the stock, does not want to see its influence diluted. Other problems include the role of Gerhard Cromme, head of the supervisory board, which failed in oversight over the failed project. Cromme is also the head of the supervisory board at Siemens AG. At Siemens he helped a company cleanup after a bribery scandal and brought in new management. He also headed the Cromme Commission on corporate governance code for German business, which makes the current corruption allegations embarrassing for Cromme....

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India's currency, the rupee, ges a makeover, as the Indian government chooses a design symbol for the Rupee. It will be some variation of the letter R, similiar to the way Japan uses the Y for Yen with double bars across it, or how the Europeans chose the epsilon Greek character for the Euro symbol.

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Estimates vary on how much capital Spain's banks will need to recapitalize and push their tier one ratio to 8%. Moody's says they will need 17 billion euros to push their tier one ratio to 8% and UBS says they will need 120 billion euros to regain confidence in financial markets. The banks will have to redeem 90 billion euros of debt in 2011, 45% of this by the two largest banks, according to Barclays Capital. The problem lies in large debt in declining housing markets. Spain's banks have 323 billion euros or 31% of GDP in loans in the housing and property markets.

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Germany's state development bank KfW has signed a memorandum of understanding with German energy company RWE AG to build a new LNG terminal at the northern port city of Brunsbuttel. Netherlands infrastructure group Gasunie will operate the new LNG terminal. The Nordstream 2 $11 billion project is now set aside and Germany plans to use the LNG terminals and other sources outside of Russia. Germany commissioned its gas market trading hub to buy LNG of 1.5 billion euros. 

Germany will now fast track another LNG terminal on the North Sea at Wilhelmshaven. That terminal would be operational in 3 years. 

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French plans to cut energy use by 10% from 2019 levels in 2 year are announced by prime minister Elisabeth Borne. The target is 40% reduction in energy use by 2050. The key is to make energy use more efficient says president Macron. The efforts include turning down thermostats in buildings to 66 degrees Fahrenheit. Households are asked to start heating 2 weeks later than usual and end heating 2 weeks earlier than usual this winter. Civil servants will get about 3 euros a day for working from home. Remote work for some days a week is encouraged and carpooling is expected.

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Stellantis reports a loss of $750 million on sales of 41 billion euros for third quarter 2023. As a company with operations distributed evenly all over the world Stellantis suffered smaller losses than GM and Ford. GM's losses of profit were $1.3 billion and Ford's $800 million. From the point of view of workers who want a settlement for fair wages in a cost of living crisis keeping losses sustained by the car company to a minimum so that the industry as a whole does better is important, because when the companies do better so do workers and management. 

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The proposed EU financial transactions tax of 0.1% on stock transactions and 0.01% on derivative transactions gains support. It would generate about 100 million euros for Estonia and about $10 billion for Germany. It is designed so that any small job loss would be more than made up by job gains through badly needed infrastructure investment, at a time when EU budgets are tight.

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France joins Britain in requiring masks in indoor space. The number of new cases in France are now dropped down to a few hundred each day compared to several thousand before. This month in July the reproduction rate passed 1 suggesting need for caution as social distancing rules, avoiding French custom of kiss in greeting, and mask wearing are now being less strictly observed. Anyone not wearing a mask after August 1 would be fined $125 or 100 euros.

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UniCredit announced plans to reorganize its Central European and Eastern European banking operations and increase its capital by 7.5 billion euros. Unicredit showed a third quarter 2011 loss of 10.64 billion euros after losses on Greek bonds and goodwill writedowns. The Italian bank said the capital increase will bring its Tier 1 ratio to above 9% as required by Basel III rules. UniCredit is listed as one of the globally systemically important financial institutions or G-SIFI's. Unicredit plans to make the placement of the rights issue to raise capital in 1st quarter 2012. Pricing remains a difficult matter considering that Unicredit shares have dropped precipitiously since 2007 when it had a market capitalization of 100 billion euros. Its market capitalization is now about 15.3 billion euros. Just in the last year the shares have dropped 50% to 0.68 euros a share in Sept. 2011.

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France's Socialist party presidential candidate, Francois Hollande, says taxpayers earning more than 1 million euros will be placed in a 75% tax bracket if he is elected. He said the corporate executive pay in France now exceeds 2 millon euros. A 2009 French Senate study shows the richest 0.01% of French taxpayers earn an average of 1.22 million euros. There are 3,523 such households, and the extra tax revenue from the 75% tax will be small. The French Senate study showed these taxpayers paying an effective tax rate of 17.5%. President Sarkozy had imposed a 3% temporary increase in taxes for those earning more than 500,000 euros a year. Hollande also plans to tax those earning more than 150,000 euros a year at a marginal tax rate of 45% instead of the current 41%, and a the same time cut taxes for small and midsized companies.

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Germany will provide 140 million euros in extra funding for Syrian refugees and at least 500 million euros in humanitarian and development aid for 2015-2017, according to Foreign Minister Steinmeier.

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Capital inflows into banks in Cyprus in the form of demand deposits accelerated in 2008 after it appeared that the banking system in Ireland was having serious problems. About $40.7 billion of capital inflows went into Cyprus in the form of loans and demand deposits in 2008, 161% of the GDP of the country, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. Cyprus became the place for hot money from other countries because of the higher interest rates on euros and the lax banking laws.

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Swiss Bank UBS's $1 billion legal settlement with the Justice Department criminal division, U.S. CFTC, UK Financial Services Authority, and Swiss regulators over manipulation of the London interbank offered rate and the euro interbank offered rate is the largest settlement for LIBOR manipulation. This exceeds the $450 million legal settlement by Barclays bank for LIBOR manipulation.

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During the November 2011 to February 2012 period Spanish banks increased holdings of government bonds by 68 billion euros, and Italian banks by 54 billion euros under the ECB's Long Term Financing Operation. That program helped to lower bond yields of the two countries for the 1st quarter of 2012. With Spain's economy facing more austerity measures at a time of 23% unemployment, bond yields have moved back up for Spain in April 2012. The increased holdings of government bonds by Spanish banks increases risks at a time when banks in Spain have not increased lending in the economy and hold a large number of bad mortgages in the country's housing bust.

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Prime minister Matteo Renzi focussed on some critical aspects of how other Europeans see the negotiations in the Greece bailout in June 2015. Considering that the EU had relaxed conditions for the surplus, a critical condition for reducing austerity programs in Greece and focussing on reforms, and considering the high unemployment not insisted on further cuts to the public sector employees, the conditions put forward focussing on reforms such as collection of taxes are seen as essental by other eurozone countries, including Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy. Renzi told II Sole 24 Ore- "The point is that Greece may get different conditions, but it has to abide by the rules. It's not the case that we have taken early retiremnt pensions away from the people of Italy just to allow the Greeks to have them! We have brought in labor reform, but it is not the case that, with our money, a number of Greek shipowners can continue not to pay taxes.. I could go on." If he went on he would cite the tax collection laws and methods in Italy which were changed under prime minister Monti to tackle tax evasion in Italy, with no effort to collect the $11 billion in estimated taxes that are not collected in Greece. Italy banned cash payment above 1000 euros and started a cross referencing initiative to tackle tax evasion under premier Monti. Greece took up tax evasion legislation in 2010 in parliament but opposition from many groups led to no action. In 2012 Labor minister Elsa Fornero broke down in tears as she described raising the retirement age for women to 66 in the private sector from 60, saying this was to prevent "collective impoverishment." Italy lacks childcare and older women help with childcare for grandchildren. Renzi was probably thinking of these changes in Italy. He went on to say- " If there is a mass get-out clause over the rules, what will happen in Spain in October? And in France in a year and half? It is one thing to ask for flexibility amid abidance by the rules. It is another thing to think that one is the craftiest of them all, in other words to be the that does not abide by the rules. We want them to save Greece. But the people of Greece also have to want that." On tax evasion and other issues for long term financial health Greece is seen as not following basic financial rules for sustaining the euro....

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The revival of Britain's automobile industry under foreign automakers BMW, Tata Motors and Honda. BMW and Tata Motors Land Rover operate plants at nearly full capacity in early 2014. The "working time account" model at BMW borrows from the German practice of "kurzarbeit" with extra hours put in by workers at times of high demand to be applied to wages when demand slows down. This and lower payroll wages have helped keep British costs down per hour in 2011 for carmakers to 25 euros. It compares with higher costs in France of 45 euros per hour, and 28 euros in Italy, 46 euros in Germany, according to joint research by KPMG and Germany's Association of the Automotive Industry, VDA.

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Net profit for Telefonica dropped by over 50% to 748 billion euros in te first quarter of 2012. Latin America provided over 50% of operating income before amortization and depreciation of 5.08 billion euros .

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Estimates of the exposure of European banks to Greece's sovereign debt shows BNP Paribas has 5.01 billion euros in exposure to Greek debt, Societe Generale 4.23 billion euros, Deutsche Bank 3.02 billion euros, and HSBC 1.94 billion euros, Credit Agricole 0.85 billion euros, Unicredit 0.80 billion euros, Santander 0.51 billion euros. The exposure of French, German, Italian and Spanish banks in Greece is a critical difficulty in resolving the crisis, as the banks are still in a fragile condition after the global financial crisis of 2008. With the debate on resolution of the crisis focusing on how a three way distribution of the burden should take place between austerity cuts, bondholder and creditors, and taxpayers in Germany and other EU countries, negotiations are finally taking place between each European government and the banks of that country. Three countries where such talks are taking place are Germany, France and the Netherlands. Finance ministry officials in Germany and France met with representatives of the banks and insurers in their country to arrange for the banks to voluntarily take losses on their holdings. The respective holdings of Greece's government debt according to the Bank for International Settlements are: French banks $14 billion, German banks $22.65 billion. Overall exposure to Greece is higher for French banks- at $56.7 billion for French banks and $33.97 billion for German banks. This opens the door to a Brady Plan type solution for the financial crisis in EU countries Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain....

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Economists using data from Greek banks estimate the tax evasion in 2009 through unreported income at 28 billion euros. Using a tax rate of 40% 11.2 billion euros of taxes were evaded by Greek taxpayers. This is one third of the Greek deficit in 2009. The economists say doctors and engineers were prominent in the tax evasion list and find that these groups have large representation in Greece's parliament. Italy has taken steps under the Monti government to crackdown on tax evasion, but Greece is still to take action in this area, which is particularly glaring considering that the previous Greek government agreed to cut the minimum wage in Greece.

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Barley points out the resignation of prime minister Monti in Italy is not a cause for panic, as his likely successor Luigi Bersani, head of the centre left Democratic party which leads in the polls with its electoral alliance having about 43% support, has committed to following through with Monti's policies and committments to the EU. Berlusconi is not the factor he once was with only 15% support in the polls, and anti establishment parties opposing public corruption such as Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement appealing to younger people have about 20% support changing the political landscape in Italy. Other factors favoring Italy- a lower level of debt redemption in 2013 of 158 billion euros compared to 200 billion euros for 2012 will lower Italian bond issuance, Italy's primary budget surplus, the Italian economy bottoming out, and credit conditions improving. Year to date Italian bonds have returned 19.5%, and he sees no reason for an exit from Italian bonds. If polls continue to show a committment to the policies introduced by Monti, Italian bonds will continue to be attractive for investors. By setting Italy on the path to restoring and strengthening governance Monti has removed a key element for volatility in Italian bonds....

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European Union president Ursula van der Leyen says Africa could be facing a massive surge in coronavirus in a couple of weeks similar to what is happening in Europe. She said only a globally coordinated response would win the war against the coronavirus. "It is in our interests to ensure that the fight is successful worldwide." To help African economies and health systems the European Union will provide aid and grants of 15 billion euros or about 16.3 billion dollars. 

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After years of decline in Germany's rail system Deutsche Bahn this infrastructure suffering from old technology, broken bridges, lack of drivers, and train delays for 1 in 4 trains, is now up for revitalization. In 2017 about 2 million passengers claimed compensation for delays and were given average of 19 euros. 

ICE 4 is the new generation of high speed trains holding 830 people and 350 metres long. speed is 250 kilometres an hour and costs 22% less for energy.

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Ireland and Portugal both have debt to GDP ratios of more than 100%. Still Ireland is better positioned to weather the eurozone crisis. Foreign investment attracted by low taxes and an educated labor force gives Ireland signficant advantages to return to growth. Citigroup forecasts show a 5.5% decline in GDP for Portugal in 2012, and large probabilities that the deficit will overshoot. Ireland expects 0.5% growth in 2012. Ireland's exports are 60% of GDP, compared to 24% for Portugal. Yields on Portuguese bonds due 2020 are at 13%, compared to less than 7% for Ireland. But funding Portugal through the end of 2015 is expected to cost 40 billion euros, according to Capital Economics estimates, or only 0.4% of eurozone GDP, making the problem in Portugal very manageable for the EU.

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The Economist's index on the value of the USA currency shows the euro is overvalued by 22% relative to the $US, and most currency analysts think that the euro is overvalued by 20-30% relative to the dollar. As the economy in the EU and in Britain in particular is doing poorly and may contract in the second quarter and at some point the European central bank may lower interest rates especially if crude oil prices continue to drop and inflation is under control. The Fed increasing rates and the ECB decreasing rates would help the dollar rebound.

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Under VW CEO Martin Winterkorn sales were up by 77% to 10.2 million units, revenues by 92% to 202 billion euros, and net profit tripled to 10.8 billion euros from 2007 to 2014. Winterkorn's contract ends in 2016.