UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from Breakingviews:
China makes an uneasy saviour for Europe
By John Foley
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
HONG KONG -- Expectations that China will help fix the euro zone are writ large as Wen Jiabao, the premier, visits Hungary, Britain and Germany. No wonder: the single currency aids Chinese exports, and buying periphery debt may help win friends on other issues. While China appears to have much to gain, the support isn't wholly likeable from Europe's perspective.
China has a keen interest in the health of the euro. For one thing it provides a counterbalance to the U.S. dollar. Second, it prevents member states from deliberately holding down the value of their currencies to promote exports, as China has done. The effect is marked: China's trade surplus with the EU swelled by a third in 2010.
China's interest in the sovereign debt of stricken euro zone countries is real enough, too. While the details of its holdings of foreign debt aren't made public, Wen Jiabao pledged to buy Greek bonds in October 2010, and unidentified Asian buyers have taken part in some sales of European "stability facility" bonds.
from MacroScope:
Some good econ reads from the Blogosphere
From the econ blogosphere:
UK BUDGET
-- The libertarian Adam Smith Institute says here that the UK government should look at every government job, programme and department, and ask whether they are really needed. "Do we really need new school buildings....? Should taxpayers really stump up for free bus passes, or winter fuel and Chistmas bonuses for wealthy pensioners?"
CHINESE FX
-- VOX publishes this post from senior research fellow Willem Thorbecke of the Asian Development Bank on China's latest move on the dollar peg. "China's action may facilitate a concerted appreciation in Factory Asia, helping the region redirect production away from western markets and towards domestic consumers."
Britain sows seeds of change at world trade fair
How do you persuade 70 million Chinese that Britain is a modern, dynamic economy rather than a fog-bound heritage park filled with characters from a Dickens novel?
That’s the challenge that faced the design team behind the British pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, the huge international trade show that opens in May.
from MacroScope:
Instant View Video: Rebalancing global trade
Reuters correspondent Sumeet Desai talks about the G20 draft communique and what it means for rebalancing the world's economy.
from Events:
Paris Air Show: Europe, when will you reach the stars?
-Maria Sheahan is a Reuters senior correspondent in Frankfurt.-
So far, Europe has left it up to the United States, Russia and China to send people into space. But almost 50 years after Russia's Yuri Gagarin made his first orbit around the earth, it's about time that Europe finally enter the playing field, some say.
"Europe cannot stay out of manned (space) flight forever," EADS unit Astrium Space Transportation's CEO Alain Charmeau said at the Paris Air Show. Europe has its own space agency, ESA; it has its own module on the International Space Station; and it has sent its astronauts into space as passengers on the spacecraft of others.
Should Britain boycott the Olympics over Tibet?
The idea of a boycott of this Summer’s Beijing Olympics in protest at the handling of events in Tibet is not yet an official policy of any government or major human rights organization.
But actor Richard Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, has told Reuters he believes it would be “unconscionable” to attend the Games if China fails to deal with  peacefully with the latest unrest.
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The Wall
