Europe Rising – Turn the Money Printer On!

Nov. 12, 2013
EU economy is since several years like a highly engineered Formula 1 engine or Nascar engine, but somehow the fuel isn’t flowing through the injection nozzles into cylinders and misfiring (from Brussels) is causing severe underperformance. At the same time the EU “SME engine” is performing relatively well!

One very large industrial segment in Germany, the machine builders, are forecasting for their industry segment a sales growth of 3% in Germany and 5% world-wide! All-in-all good news.

EU Commission estimates an GDP growth of 1.4% for year 2014 and the following year 1.7%.

Cautious positive tones can be heard from EU politicians - actually very cautious tones though.

EU economy is since several years like a highly engineered Formula 1 engine or Nascar engine, but some how the fuel isn’t flowing through the injection nozzles into cylinders and misfiring (from Brussels) is causing severe underperformance.

At the same time the  EU “SME engine” is performing relatively well!

Now the new threat to growth is the extremely low inflation turning into deflation. EU controls very tightly and sanctions, if  low inflation rate targets, set by Brussels, for EU members states are not achieved. The mantra was and is, anything goes as long as it is saving.

EU is supporting the banks for their exclusive rights to bring money on the “streets.”

Wake up EU, the banks haven’t been doing it since the last several years. Nothing has changed in their attitudes since then.

Every child to grandma and grandpa in EU is putting aside every cent they have. Homeowners are paying their debt back as fast as they can. There is little money left for SMEs to earn.

So SMEs must pay from declining prices their debts back to banks. The banks are sitting on this cash and not giving the money back into real economy.

So go figure what is going on!

This is what European Central Bank should do now in order to finally be in sync with the real economy and that SME machine builders will reach their growth forecast:

  • Crank the wheel of the Euro money printer much faster
  • Throw, literally, money on the streets (take a sunny day though)

This would open the “clogged nozzles“ of the EU economy again.

About the Author

R. Paul Vuolle Blog | CEO

R. Paul Vuolle's blog "The SME's Guide to European Manufacturing," has moved. You'll find his latest ideas and commentary on SME European Manufacturing on IndustryWeek's IdeaXchange. 

You'll find more articles written by Paul at http://www.industryweek.com/blog/smes-guide-european-manufacturing.

R. Paul Vuolle, CEO of Bellevue SME Advisors GmbH in Switzerland and Germany, works actively with small and medium (SME) size manufacturing companies in Europe in SCM/Outsourcing, logistics, turnaround and restructuring, market expansion, as well as succession planning and financing. He also frequently supports technology start- ups in building up their business. 

Paul has over 20 years operational industry experience in engineering, electronics, industrial automation, building automation, investment goods like electrical drives, automatic test & measurement systems, HV Transformer production systems. During his career he has worked in manufacturing industries in supply chain management, outsourcing, logistics, production, R&D and successfully selling to international large key accounts. Paul has also run a sizeable amount of M&A transactions in numerous countries around the world.


He has built up his experience working in various leadership positions and functions in large corporations, such as ABB, and having executive positions in medium-size family companies and as a technology entrepreneur.

Paul is MSc. E.E. from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich as well as BSc.E.E. from Helsinki Institute of Technology.

Paul is a long time member of IEEE and of its Industrial Applications Society.

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