Category: Global Debt Crisis
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Friday, December 04, 2009
World Debt Crisis, Dubai is Not Alone / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
The Persian Gulf emirate Dubai is seeking to defer debt payment on nearly $90 billion in liabilities from their state-run companies. Like many other over-leveraged enterprises and some countries across the globe, the government of Dubai made massive bets on real estate that have since gone sour. But no matter where in the world such a case occurs, the ramifications of taking on too much debt are always the same.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Dubai Fiasco Shows the True Nature of Bubbles / Stock-Markets / Global Debt Crisis
"At particular times a great deal of stupid people have a great deal of stupid money... At intervals, from causes which are not to be the present purpose, the money of these people – the blind capital, as we call it, of the country – is particularly large and craving; it seeks for someone to devour it, and there is a 'plethora'; it finds someone and there is 'speculation'; it is devoured and there is 'panic'." – Walter Bagehot, 1826-1877, editor-in-chief of The Economist
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Dubai World a Debt Fuelled Mirage in the Desert / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
In recent days, world attention has focused on the potential debt default of Dubai World, the main government-owned corporation in the emirate of Dubai. The transformation of the city-state from a Persian Gulf backwater into the glittering financial capital of the Middle East can only be fully appreciated by those who watched it grow over the last 15 years. But as palm-shaped islands sprouted and spires shot up into the clouds, few spectators realized that Dubai was constructing the perfect metaphor of the 21st century economy: a mirage built on debt.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Soviet Investors Seeking $900 Billion in Compensation From Russian Ministry of Finance / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
Recently, Russian officials remembered about the lost Soviet investments and decided to significantly increase compensation to the investors. For the first time after recognizing Soviet investments as internal debt, the Russian Ministry of Finance will repay 3 Russian rubles per each Soviet ruble, instead of the previous 2:1 scheme. The state cumulative investments debt is estimated to be $900 billion. Experts doubt the fairness of the new repayment scheme and believe that the rates of 1:30, 1:80 and more would be more appropriate.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
What You Need to Know about Dubai Debt Drama / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
“U.S financial institutions could take direct hits,” warned a CNN headline after last week’s market rattling announcement from Dubai. Like an eerie reminder of last November, when the only reasonable expectation you could have as the markets closed was that you would wake up to something unexpected, the markets opened up with a renewed sense of fear.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
How to Profit From the Next Dubai / Stock-Markets / Global Debt Crisis
Martin Hutchinson writes: The Dubai World default is a matter of only $60 billion – mere peanuts when compared to other elements of the global financial crisis. It’s thus of concern only to those silly enough to invest in real estate there (and the European banks foolish enough to finance it.) For the rest of us, it is a useful reminder that sudden collapses don’t really come out of nowhere – they can be foreseen, and smart investors can plan for them.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Roubini on the Dubai Debt Fallout / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
deleted.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Dubai Financial Meltdown to Trigger More Debt Defaults and Economic Contraction / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
The Dubai virus has been contained. There won't be another financial system meltdown. But the lessons of Dubai are hard to ignore. Global shares started tumbling at the first whiff of trouble; no one bothered waiting for the details. Someone yelled, "Fire" and the panic began. It's a good indication of how jittery investors still are.
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Monday, November 30, 2009
Governments Benefit From ‘Teaser’ Interest Rates, Wait ’til They Come to an End… / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
There are so many breathtaking things going on around us we practically suffocate. Last week, three-month US Treasury-bills yielded all of 0.015% interest. Some yields were below zero. In effect, investors gave the government money. The government thanked them and promised to give them back less money three months later. How do you explain this strange transaction? Was there a full moon?
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
The Subprime Dubai Debt Default Crash / Stock-Markets / Global Debt Crisis
Subprime Dubai
More Government Data Fun:
Unemployment Claims Were Not Down
Why I Am Optimistic About the Future
The Millennium Wave
I admit that of late my writings have had a rather dark tone. There are certainly a number of severe long-term problems that we must deal with, and they're going to serve up a lot of economic pain. But the Thanksgiving weekend with the kids has me in a reflective mood, and one that has only served to underscore my long-term optimism. This week we look at why 2007 will not be the good old days we will yearn for in 20 years, after we briefly visit Dubai and the latest unemployment numbers.
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Friday, November 27, 2009
Dubai Drops a Turkey on Global Financial Markets! / Stock-Markets / Global Debt Crisis
This was shaping up to be such a calm and enjoyable Thanksgiving week.
A lot of important economic reports were crammed into the first three days of the week. Most of them provided positive surprises, supporting the scenario of a nicely improving economy. It wasn’t good that the economic recovery in the third quarter wasn’t as strong as previously reported, with 3rd quarter GDP being revised down to 2.8% from the previously reported 3.5%.
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Friday, November 27, 2009
Greece Tests the Limit of Sovereign Debt As it Grinds Toward Slump / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
I've been reading quite a bit of handwring over Greece in the UK papers, and came upon this piece from one of my favorite writers, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, early this week. It was in the "to do pile" to put on the website, but I never got around to it. It appears with events in the past 48 hours, there is no time like the present.
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Thursday, November 26, 2009
Dubai debt Defaults, Deflation In Action, Watched Pot Theory Revisited / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
Last night after a 10 hour drive I was up at 5:00AM watching the futures plunge but not knowing why. Now we know: Dubai default fears spook investors
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Which Big Western Country Will Default On Its Debts First? / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
Martin Hutchinson writes: Volume in the credit default swap market for rich countries has soared and so have credit spreads, according to a recent Financial Times story, while volume in emerging markets CDS has stagnated. In other words, traders are betting against the governments with high budget deficits, like Britain and the United States, as well as against those with high debt levels, like Japan and Italy.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Looming Government Budget Deficits Will Make You Dirt Poor / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
"Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." ~ Loretta Lynn
Loretta was singing about kicking the bucket. Kicking the can is what people do before they kick the bucket. It is also what Congress does before Treasury bills kick the bucket.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Government Sovereign Debt Spirals / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
I have been writing about sovereign debt risk for some time. Japan, Spain, Italy and Portugal are all facing serious fiscal deficits and funding problems within a few years. But Greece may be the first country to hit the wall. In today's Outside the Box, we look at a short column by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph on the problems facing Greece. Greece will soon be faced with deciding which bad choice to make among a very small set of really bad, difficult choices.
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