Today’s post reacts to the news that BMW, the famous German auto-manufacturer, has been raided by the European Commission’s (EC) antitrust division as part of an investigation into collusion between the largest German auto-manufacturers. In this post, the focus will be on the details of the investigation, as far as we can know at this very early stage, and then on contextualising that against the larger picture for auto-manufacturers. Ultimately, although operating in opposition to the supposed ideals of the marketplace i.e. private and independent business, the reality of the situation is that in this particular industry collusion is rife, and arguably necessary – depending upon one’s position. The EC raided BMW’s Munich offices last week in the latest development of an investigation into collusion between the largest German auto-manufacturers. The investigation, which began earlier this year, is based upon the allegations that ‘ Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, and Daimler has for year...

This week in the world of business has been dominated by massive trade deals and bitter trade disputes, with this post suggesting that a link between the two is that the outcome of these developments portrays a vision for those British voters who voted to leave the E.U. of what post-Brexit Britain will look like. In what is proving to be a great advert for the E.U. and its members not following the path of the British (a message sharply delivered by the French and German electorate this year, despite the rise of the AfD ), the plight of Canadian company Bombardier is, for a variety of reasons, bringing the reality home to the British in a remarkable way. In this post then the focus will be on the ongoing trade dispute between Bombardier and Boeing, which is quickly elevating into a political catastrophe, and the merger of French company Alstom with its German Counterpart Siemens (leaving Bombardier in the cold), which in itself demonstrates the capability that exists within a co...

Speaking yesterday after releasing a global-macro outlook for 2017-18 , the Vice President of the Credit Rating Agency Moody’s, Madhavi Bokil, announced that the Agency expects global activity to maintain its upward curve. However, there were a number of caveats that were attached to the announcement and one of them in particular will be the focus of this short post. Citing the shifts in economic policy emanating from the Trump administration in the U.S., which it suggests would affect the global economy via shifts in its views to trade and interest rates, and the risks associated with a deceleration in China’s economic expansion, Bokil is confident that ‘ destabilising economic and policy dislocations will be minimal ’ in the next few years. However, there is another caveat of Moody’s’ which is of interest when understood with a recent development within Europe. Bokil continued by discussing that the political and fragmentation risks in the E.U. and the European area also pose ...