viable

Angel Stadium turns 60 next year. By then, the city of Anaheim hopes to learn how many hundreds of millions of dollars it might take to keep the stadium viable for decades to come.

The Angels’ stadium lease extends through 2032, and the city manager said Tuesday there are no talks between the city and the team about what might happen beyond then.

“I want to be clear that there are no long-term discussions taking place, and none imminent,” Anaheim City Manager Jim Vanderpool told council members Tuesday.

In 2022, after the disclosure of a federal corruption investigation into then-mayor Harry Sidhu, the council killed a deal under which Angels owner Arte Moreno would have bought the stadium and surrounding land for $150 million, then built a neighborhood atop the parking lots and renovated or replaced the stadium.

The Angels remained a tenant in the city-owned stadium, and in 2023 the council authorized an assessment of the condition of the facility.

“We expect a finalized assessment in mid-2026,” Vanderpool said.

After an initial visual inspection, engineers are currently testing concrete and metal structures within the ballpark, Vanderpool said.

The results could inform the city and team about what needs to be done to maintain the stadium into the future as well as spark a debate over which party should be responsible for any currently needed upgrades.

ECB President Christine Lagarde argues the US economic policy shifts have created inroads for the euro to the standard currency for future global trade.

The euro could become a viable alternative to the US dollar as the global standard currency for international trade, according to European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.

In a speech in Berlin, Germany, Lagarde said on Monday that the erratic economic policy of the United States has spooked global investors into limiting their exposure to the dollar in recent months. Many have opted to invest in gold, without seeing a viable alternative.

“The ongoing changes create the opening for a ‘global euro moment’,” she said.

Lagarde said investors seek “geopolitical assurance in another form: they invest in the assets of regions that are reliable security partners and can honour alliances with hard power”.

“The global economy thrived on a foundation of openness and multilateralism underpinned by US leadership … but today it is fracturing.”

The dollar’s role has been on the decline for years and now makes up 58 percent of international reserves, the lowest in decades, but still well above the euro’s 20 percent share.

Any enhanced role for the euro must coincide with greater military strength that can back up partnerships, Lagarde said.

Europe should also make the euro the currency of choice for businesses invoicing international trade, she said. This could be supported by forging new trade agreements, enhanced cross-border payments and liquidity agreements with the ECB.

Looming challenges

The euro’s global role has been stagnant for decades now since the European Union’s financial institutions remain unfinished and governments have shown little appetite to embark on more integration.

For this, Europe needs a deeper, more liquid capital market, must bolster its legal foundations, and needs to underpin its commitment to open trade with security capabilities, Lagarde argued.

Reforming the domestic economy may be more pressing, however, she said. The euro area capital market is still fragmented, inefficient and lacks a truly liquid, widely available safe asset that investors could flock to.

“Economic logic tells us that public goods need to be jointly financed. And this joint financing could provide the basis for Europe to gradually increase its supply of safe assets,” Lagarde said.

Joint borrowing has been taboo for some key eurozone members, particularly Germany, which fears that its taxpayers could end up having to pay for the fiscal irresponsibility of others.

If Europe succeeded, the benefits would be large, Lagarde said. The investment inflow would allow domestic players to borrow at lower cost, insulate the bloc from exchange rate movements and protect it against international sanctions.