Commentary
Erik Nielson has observed that the big idea that should be implemented now in the United States is a serious spending commintment to investment in infrastructure ... in the order of $500 billion to $1 trillion over a period of about 5 years. He makes the point that this is not an increase in spending over a ten year period simply because this spending is going to be essential at some point because the infrastructure is simply broken. The interview on Bloomberg News had the serious remark that most of Europe had better infrastructure than the US ... but the Bloomberg hosts only could respond with some jokes about their local roads being repaved and JFK (the airport) being considerably improved in recent years.
Peter Burgess

People & Firms

UniCredit Appoints Global Chief Economist and Head of Economics & FI / FX Research

UniCredit has announced that Erik F. Nielsen (54) will join UniCredit as Global Chief Economist and Head of Economics & Fixed Income/ Fixed Currency (FI/FX) Research, with effect from 1 September 2011.

In his role as Global Chief Economist, Nielsen will be responsible for forming and communicating the overall macroeconomic and policy views of UniCredit in the marketplace. He will also be Deputy Head of UniCredit Research and report to Thorsten Weinelt, Global Head of UniCredit Research and Chief Investment Strategist. Nielsen will be based in London. UniCredit Research is part of the Corporate & Investment Banking division and comprises Economics & FI / FX Research, Equity Research, Credit Research, Commodity Research as well as all Cross Asset Research activities for the Group.

Commenting on the appointment Thorsten Weinelt said: 'With Erik we add an outstanding economist to our Research team. He brings unique value to our franchise with his experience and broad network and contacts to policymakers, central bankers, international organizations as well as global institutional clients'.

Prior to joining UniCredit, Nielsen worked for more than 15 years as an economist at Goldman Sachs in New York as well as in London, where his last role was Chief European Economist overseeing the European and EEMEA economics team. In this role, Nielsen has been widely recognized as an opinion leader on ECB policies as well as on recent years' European crisis. He started his career as an economist at the Danish Central Bank in Copenhagen, before joining the International Monetary Fund and later the World Bank. At the IMF, Nielsen worked as an economist for Eastern Europe, while at the World Bank he had a special focus on Russia and before that on the World Bank's involvement in the Brady Plan. Nielsen holds a graduate degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen.

About UniCredit Corporate & Investment Banking

UniCredit is a major international financial institution with strong roots in 22 European countries as well as representative offices in 27 other markets, with about 9,600 branches and approximately 162,000 employees. In the CEE region, UniCredit operates the largest international banking network with around 4,000 branches and outlets.

UniCredit's Corporate & Investment Banking gives companies, from small and medium Corporates to multinationals and institutional clients, access to the largest network of banks in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as to branches in major financial centers worldwide. The successful collaboration between our network’s relationship managers and specialists in our product lines (Financing & Advisory, Markets, Leasing, Global Transaction Banking) enables UniCredit to respond promptly to our clients’ entrepreneurial requirements. Thus, UniCredit supports the growth and internationalization of the Group’s corporate and institutional clients, creating sustainable value for all stakeholders