Category: Eurozone Debt Crisis
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Draghi's Plan to buy Sovereign Bonds Just Buying Time / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Bloomberg
Michael Platt, founder of BlueCrest Capital Management, told Bloomberg Television's Stephanie Ruhle on "Market Makers" today that "Europe has no credible plan for growth" and Draghi's plan to buy government bonds is a revised version of ESM and a way to buy time.
Platt also said that the euro is "interesting because it reminds me of the situation in the yen. You never would have expected the yen to be such a strong currency for the last 25 years."
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Sunday, October 21, 2012
Spain’s Back In Debt Crisis Mode… And Will Take The EU Down With It / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
Spain’s Back In Debt Crisis Mode… And Will Take The EU Down With It
As I noted previous articles, Spain has essentially three options:
1) Spain goes the “Greek route” of agreeing to austerity measures in exchange for bailouts (which will implode the economy).
2) Prime Minister Rajoy refuses to impose austerity measures and is removed/ replaced by an EU technocrat who is pro-austerity measures (like Italy experienced last year)
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Monday, October 15, 2012
Bootle's, Bad Advice for the Greeks, Misunderstands Basic Economics / Economics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: MISES
Patrick Barron writes: This summer Roger Bootle won Lord Wolfson's £250,000 prize for the best advice for a country leaving the European Monetary Union (one may assume that this advice is aimed at Greece). A more statist, anti-liberal policy than his could hardly be envisioned, which is a sad commentary on the mindset of the judges chosen by Lord Wolfson. His advice contrasted sharply with that of Dr. Philipp Bagus, whose liberal, transparent, and free-market-oriented policy advice was rejected in favor of Mr. Bootle's call for state secrecy and coercion.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Euro-zone Debt Crisis, What Happens When The Core Starts To Rot / Economics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
While we're all watching Spain and Greece, their alleged saviors in the rich core of the eurozone are starting to show serious signs of corrosion. This makes all the hollow words and promises coming from the world of troikas and politics sound even emptier than they already did. Not that anyone in Holland or Germany seems to even be prepared to think their economies are in for a big fall; for them, all the bad stuff is temporary, and soon it will all be better. Our proverbial Martian might be tempted to think denial is a river in northern Europe.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Nigel Farage on the Rise of UKIP, the Fall of Europe, and the Parallels for the US / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
Political and economic tensions are mounting in Spain. No serious economist believes the official budget forecast. Unemployment is near 25%, and tax hikes are about to make matters worse.
Moreover, a proposal from Madrid would force children in Catalonia’s schools to speak Spanish even though the dominant language is Catalan.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Euro-zone Bailout, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Fitch has given the ESM, which reportedly became "operational" today, even though the Eurozone members will take years to full its coffers from today's €200 billion to the desired €500-600 billion, an AAA rating. The European (hey, what happened to Emergency?) Stability Mechanism needs this rating in order to sell bonds. Since eurobonds are not deemed acceptable by too many parties involved, the new pride of Europe will start selling ... right, eurobonds, just under another name.
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Monday, October 01, 2012
Spain's Banks Need Another 60 Billion Euro Bailout / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Ian_R_Campbell
Why read: Because late Friday afternoon after the European markets closed the results of Spain's bank audit was publicly released. It is reminiscent in some respects of the U.S. Bank Stress Test report issued earlier this year by the Federal Reserve, and you should know something about the assumptions upon which the report is based.
Monday, October 01, 2012
Euro-zone Breakup, What if I am Wrong? / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
I have long stated the eurozone will breakup. Historically speaking, no currency union has ever survived in the absence of a political union.
Moreover, in It's Just Impossible I noted
- The Bundesbank said there should be no banking union until there is a fiscal union.
- Angela Merkel said that there should be no fiscal union until there is political union.
- François Hollande said that there should be no political union until there is a banking union.
- The German supreme court will not allow a political union nor a fiscal union, nor a banking union without a German referendum.
Friday, September 28, 2012
There's Only One Way Forward For Europe, And This Isn’t It / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
As Groucho once put it: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it."
Vaclav Klaus is perhaps the only man out there I've seen so far who says the right things. Well, other than myself, that is. Chest thumping? I'm just worried, and increasingly so, by the level of complacency I witness every single day in whatever it is I see and read about Europe (I read a lot).
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Friday, September 28, 2012
Mario Monti Says No ECB PIIGS Bond Buying Due to Lack of Conditionality / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Bloomberg
BLOOMBERG TV EXCLUSIVE: Mario Monti, Prime Minister of Italy, spoke with Bloomberg Television's Erik Schatzker in New York today about considering another term after elections. He discussed why the EU's new bailout fund hasn't been used yet, saying "because it is being finalized. And in particular I think there is still some refinement ongoing on the precise nature and modalities of the conditionality that would have to be associated to the European Central Bank intervening in the markets to buy the bonds of a specific country."
Monday, September 24, 2012
You're Dreaming If You Think The Euro Debt Crisis Is Resolved / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
The German edition of Der Spiegel opens the new week on Monday morning with a series of articles on the European situation, which make clear, as if that were still necessary, that Europe is still an absolute mess. You know, just in case you thought it was not. That Mario Draghi's latest unlimited whatever it is had somehow chased away the demons.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Hungary Says The IMF And EU Want To Make It A Colony Of Debt Slaves / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
After publishing Hungary Throws Out Monsanto AND The IMF 10 days ago, I've been keeping an eye on what goes down along the twin Buda and Pest shores of the Danube river.
That's how I came upon a video from Johnny Miller for PressTV, which is sort of Iran's version of Russia Today and Al Jazeera, news channels that find their niche and viability "behind the biases" of western media, in much the same way that the Automatic Earth and numerous other websites do. Of course, there is no lack of people who declare exactly those alternative voices to be biased, but wherever the truth may lie, fact is that many readers and viewers in the west are fed up with, and no longer trust, their traditional media, let alone their political systems. Hungary may prove to be an excellent example of why that is and how it all plays out.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Banking union fallacies 5 - DG MARKT complicit in capital controls? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: ECB_Watch
According to the FT, Mari Draghi claims that, in response to the sovereign debt crisis, national supervisors have been imposing capital controls on the banks in their jurisdictions. Daniel Gros from CEPS—'who developed original plans for EMU—warned against a similar scenario to underscore 'national bias' in financial regulation.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
European House of Cards, Follow the Money / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Handbury
You’ve got to give super Mario Draghi his due – he’s no dummy. His comments in July "Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough", were just in time to reduce the yields on Italian and Spanish bonds for their major issues the next week.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Euro Crisis and Holland Mortgage Debt, Those Dutch Tulips Ain't Looking All That Rosy / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Well, the German Supreme Court decision is through, and it looks positive at a first superficial glance, so what could go wrong from here?
Sorry to break it to you, but plenty could. It’s amusing to see that decisions like these, the German court one or last week’s Draghi bond buying announcement, are seen as being positive for markets and/or entire economies, while in fact the only reason they have to be taken in the first place is that the situation is getting worse all the time.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Why the ECB's Rescue Plan Can't Save Europe / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
So, Thursday was a big deal. Did you get that?
Markets rallied around the globe, especially European markets and U.S. markets.
But did you get what really happened?
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
What Makes Mario Draghi So Dangerous For Europe / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
The plan to "save the euro through unlimited bond-buying" that ECB president Mario Draghi presented last week shows one thing above all, and with blinding clarity to boot - why nobody picks up on it is beyond me: it shows that Draghi is the least suitable person to present any such plan.
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Monday, September 10, 2012
Why ECB Bond Buying Undermines Democracy; Is Draghi Above The Law? / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
A post on the the Fibs and Waves blog by "Blankfeind" outlines the actual legal case against the OMT. I believe the case is rock solid. How the German constitutional court rules in two days is another matter.
Please consider The ECB Thumbs Its Nose At The Law.
Read full article... Read full article...On September 6th, the ECB announced its Outright Monetary Transactions program, known as OMT. Justified as a means for the ECB to repair monetary policy transmission and to recreate the singleness of monetary policy for the euro area, the OMT offers an unlimited commitment by the ECB to purchase short-term (one to three year) sovereign debt in the secondary markets for sovereigns who agree to certain conditions.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Soros Tells Germany to Lead or to Leave the Euro: He’s Right / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_Butter
George Soros was interviewed by the Financial Times yesterday, his message, prior to a speaking engagement the next day was that if Germany wanted to continue to doggedly promote a hard-currency anti-inflation, pro-austerity stance, then they should leave the Euro.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, September 10, 2012
Draghi's Fatal Mistake, German Constitutional Court Approval of ESM Not a Done Deal / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
One puzzling aspect of ECB president Mario' Draghi's Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) plan to save the eurozone is his doing so before the German constitutional court had approved the ESM.
In spite of Draghi's emphasis on conditionality, OMT puts Germany directly at risk in an unlimited way. This modification to the ESM makes the constitutional case against it is much stronger.