Satyajit Das, a global risk & banking analyst warns that Europe's problems are now increasingly political - Audio

Europe’s economic woes were further complicated this week as political risk emerged as the regions latest problem. The Dutch government resigned after it failed to pass a raft of austerity measures, in France President Nicolas Sarkozy lost the first round of elections in his bid for a second term in office, in the UK it was confirmed this week that the country was officially back in recession – in fact a double dip - after recording a second quarter of negative growth and finally Spain had its credit rating further downgraded to BBB+ by rating agency Standard & Poors. All of this comes at a time when our own Government warned of a further deterioration in the national accounts with Finance Minister Bill English saying this week that it will be a zero budget next month at best and it seems increasingly likely that the government will be forced to make further cuts in its spending. In this interview leading global banking analyst Satyajit Das, who authored the book "Extreme Money" assesses the long term outlook for Europe against an ever deteriorating backdrop of economic stagnation.