Alexander Privitera a Geoeconomics Non-Resident Senior Fellow at AGI. He is a columnist at BRINK news and professor at Marconi University. He was previously Senior Policy Advisor at the European Banking Federation and was the head of European affairs at Commerzbank AG. He focuses primarily on Germany’s European policies and their impact on relations between the United States and Europe. Previously, Mr. Privitera was the Washington-based correspondent for the leading German news channel, N24. As a journalist, over the past two decades he has been posted to Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, and Rome. Mr. Privitera was born in Rome, Italy, and holds a degree in Political Science (International Relations and Economics) from La Sapienza University in Rome.
The State of the Union: Beyond Free Trade
Forging a transatlantic free trade agreement is an ambitious but elusive goal. The record of past trade talks is littered with disputes. Just recently, Europeans and Americans managed to fight …
Agenda 2010 Revisited
Ten years after its birth, Agenda 2010, the series of structural reforms announced and implemented by then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, has become the symbol for Germany’s “Jobwunder” (jobs miracle). …
Merkel’s Current Headaches
If Chancellor Angela Merkel could decide who should run Italy and Spain, she would have little doubt about whom to choose: Mario Monti and Mariano Rajoy, the current prime ministers …
A European Currency War?
Update: remarks made by French President Francois Hollande in Strasbourg on Feb. 5, 2013 concerning the need for action on the strength of the euro has only helped to stoke …
The Legacy of the Elysee Treaty
In a conversation with his ambassador to France, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer once impatiently remarked that Germans needed to be more closely bound to France for a very simple reason: to …
Europe’s Pivotal Week
This was truly a remarkable week for Europe. It opened with Franco-German festivities in Berlin celebrating fifty years of the Elysee treaty. It continued with UK Prime Minister David Cameron …
No Claim to Victory
While most commentators who listened to Mario Draghi’s first press conference in 2013 focused on the upbeat tone of the remarks made by the ECB’s president, I prefer to focus …
Monti’s Campaign
By finally stepping into the political fray, Italy’s outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti has sent a strong message to the outside world that it should still be very worried about …
Yet Another Year of the Central Banker
2012 was the year that Mario Draghi saved the euro. There is no doubt that it was the European central banker’s simple statement that the ECB was ready to do …
End of Year Summitry
The European Union’s end of year summit delivered what amounts to solid progress: there is a deal on a banking union and the European central bank will in fact become …
Italy’s Revolving Political Door
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s sudden decision to pull the plug on his own government sent shockwaves across Europe and spooked investors. In fact, many observers squarely attacked former Italian …
