Category: Eurozone Debt Crisis
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Europe Crisis from a European Perspective / Economics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Alasdair_Macleod
Alasdair Macleod writes: The purpose of this report is to give readers the essential background to the economic problems in Europe and to bring you up-to-date in what has become a fast-moving situation. At the time of writing, there has been a lull in the news flow, but that does not mean the problems are under control. Far from it.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Is Europe Sailing on the Titanic? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: LewRockwell
Patrick J. Buchanan writes: U.S. growth in the first quarter fell to 2.2 percent, a disappointment. But in Europe, that news would have caused general rejoicing.
For consider the gathering crisis on the old continent.
With negative growth now for six months, Britain has fallen back into recession. "I don't think we're anywhere near halfway through the eurozone crisis," said Prime Minister David Cameron this weekend.
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Monday, April 30, 2012
Secrets of the Spanish Banking System That 99% of Analysts Fail to Grasp / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
Spain is a catastrophe on such a level that few analysts even grasp it.
Indeed, to fully understand just why Spain is such a catastrophe, we need to understand Spain in the context of both the EU and the global financial system.
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Sunday, April 29, 2012
Bundesbank in Hot Water… Will It Take the Heat or Throw the ECB Under the Bus? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
Yesterday we discussed the political fall-out for German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding revelations that the Bundesbank has in fact put Germany on the hook for over €2 trillion via various back-door deals.
Today we need to consider how those same revelations will impact the Bundesbank itself. Already we’re seeing its head Jens Weidmann (also a policymaker at the ECB) taking a hard-liner approach to dealing
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Sunday, April 29, 2012
EuroSpeak for "Starve the Beast" The Meaning of “Austerity Measures” / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Whitney
The eurozone is slipping into a recession that could have been avoided. Had policymakers provided fiscal support for stricken countries in the South and guarantees on their government bonds, (as the USG does for US Treasuries) then their economies could have continued to grow while the necessary reforms were put in place. But the Troika (The IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission) decided to make the bailouts conditional on member states’ acceptance of harsh austerity measures which forced leaders to slash government payrolls, services and programs. The result was entirely predictable; economic activity began to sputter as one country after another succumbed to a vicious slump.
Friday, April 27, 2012
IMF Reports on Spanish Banks / Companies / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Ian_R_Campbell
An April 25 article reports that a recent IMF overview of Spain's financial system has said the Spanish banking system "remains vulnerable" and needs:
- a capital infusion; and,
- a strategy to 'quickly clear away' a collapsing property bubble legacy, where bad debts have now reached U.S.$185 billion.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Portugal Bailout, One Year Later: Were You Prepared in Advance? / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: EWI
Make no mistake: The stakes for financial and economic survival in Europe are high. Seemingly everyone -- from investment bloggers to financial television hosts -- has something to say about the European debt crisis.
But with so many divergent opinions to choose from, which ones should you trust?
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Secret System that Blew Another Hole in the Euro / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
This may sound arcane and boring, but I promise you it's not.
What I've learned will blow yet another hole in the already shaky euro.
It begins with Bernd Schunemann, a law professor at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. He has sued the German Bundesbank over its participation in the Eurozone "Target-2" settlements system.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
European Central Bank: "Great White Fear" Takes A Bite Out of Recovery / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: EWI
It's been over two years since the European Central Bank began its open-heart surgery of the eurozone's anemic economy. So far, the procedure has included an unprecedented $3 trillion-plus in bailouts, monetary transfusions, AND toxic debt transplants.
Yet, according to a recent slew of discomforting news reports, the economies across the pond would still flatline in seconds without constant life support. Here, an April 18, 2012, Wall Street Journal writes:
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Pain in Spain, Debt Spiral and Housing Market Crash / Economics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
It really does seem to be All Spain All the Time, but there is a reason. Unlike Greece, Spain makes a difference to the eurozone. It may be both too big to allow to fail and too big to save. Last week I came across a very informative 50-page PowerPoint on the situation in Spain from Carmel Asset Management. It is too big to send, but I asked Jonathan Carmel to draft a smaller document with some of the key points. I find it compelling. You can access the entire PowerPoint on my website. If you are not registered with me, you will need to enter your email address and, if you would, your zip code or country. There is a lot if information and data in the report. It will certainly make you think.
I want to emphasize that I do not think Spain is hopeless. Rather, it has a narrow set of limited options that will require a great deal of austerity and economic pain on the part of Spain and significant help from the rest of Europe, combined with the forbearance and patience of the bond market or massive buying of Spanish bonds by the ECB for an extended period of time. I think it will need to be the latter, as the bond market is on the brink of breaking down on Spanish debt, failing a realistic path to economic balance and growth. The way ahead is most difficult and treacherous. It appears to me that at the end of the day only ECB participation can buy Spain the time it needs. If they give Spain the time, it can get through. But the pain will then be spread to the valuation of the euro and thus the entire eurozone.
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Sunday, April 22, 2012
Spain is Greece… Only Bigger and Worse / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
On the Surface, Spain’s debt woes have many things in common with those of Greece:
1) Bad age demographics
2) A toxic bank system
However, you’ll note that as we tackle each of these, Spain is in fact in far worse fiscal shape than Greece.
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Sunday, April 22, 2012
Spain is an Absolute Disaster / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
Well the financial world is awash with reports that the Spanish auctions went well. They did not. And you better believe the ECB and other Central Banks were involved in the buying.
Instead, Wall Street is using the auction (and just about every other announcement this morning) to shred and those who sold calls in their usual options expiration games. This has been the norm for years, but the mainstream financial media continues to find “fundamental” excuses for market action that is clearly just manipulation and nothing more.
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Friday, April 20, 2012
Lagarde says IMF Would Be There 'For All Members' In Debt Crisis / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Bloomberg
Bloomberg Exclusive: IMF managing director Christine Lagarde spoke with Bloomberg Television's Margaret Brennan and said that she expects more contributions on top of the $320 billion raised and "I look at this pot of money as an umbrella...there are clouds on the horizon." In reference to Spain, Lagarde said that, "if there's a need, the IMF has to be there for all members."
Lagarde also said that the U.S. must address housing issues "forcefully" to help the American economy and that whatever can be done to help households "is going to be of help to the entire U.S. economy."
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Thursday, April 19, 2012
One of the Telltale Signs Behind Risky Stocks / Stock-Markets / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
Short-term corporate thinking has been blamed for many of America's economic ills.
With little foresight beyond next year, management sometimes closes down plants and fudges accounting to make this year's earnings look better and boost the stock price.
Often, it is simply because management is excessively rewarded by short-term incentives such as stock options.
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Thursday, April 19, 2012
Why Wall Street Can’t Escape the Eurozone Debt Crisis / Stock-Markets / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes:
Despite all of its best hopes, Wall Street will never escape what's happening in the Eurozone.
The 1 trillion euro ($1.3 trillion) slush fund created to keep the chaos at bay is not big enough. And it never was.
Spanish banks are now up to their proverbial eyeballs in debt and the austerity everybody thinks is working so great in Greece will eventually push Spain over the edge.
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Thursday, April 19, 2012
How Goldman Sachs Captured Europe / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Ellen_Brown
The Goldman Sachs coup that failed in America has nearly succeeded in Europe—a permanent, irrevocable, unchallengeable bailout for the banks underwritten by the taxpayers. In September 2008, Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, managed to extort a $700 billion bank bailout from Congress. But to pull it off, he had to fall on his knees and threaten the collapse of the entire global financial system and the imposition of martial law; and the bailout was a one-time affair. Paulson’s plea for a permanent bailout fund—the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP—was opposed by Congress and ultimately rejected.
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Thursday, April 19, 2012
Spain, the Land of Magical Financial Realism / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
These days when I read about Spain I'm wondering more and more how and why it is that the country has any access at all left to international finance markets. The bond auction this week was even sort of bearable, even as yields rose. I'm guessing that either investors have a hard time reading the news or they're going double or nothing in a risk-on bet that Germany and the IMF (China?!) will come to the rescue.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The Eurozone: A Moral-Hazard Morass of Open Bailouts, Subsidies and Transfers / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Philipp_Bagus
European politicians are still trying to save the project of the euro. They design ever-greater bailout packages. Along with the bailouts, an economic government may be forthcoming. Countries may give up parts of their sovereignty. The character of the European Monetary Union (EMU), and even the European Union (EU), may change forever.
While it is still unclear where future developments will lead the EMU, the costs and risks of remaining within the system are already immense and rising.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012
France May be the Domino that Causes the Euro to Collapse / Currencies / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
Commentators are wringing their hands again, worried the troubles in Spain could cause the whole euro project to collapse.
As a result, all eyes are now on Spanish 10-year debt yields, which went above 6% last week as the threat of euro-chaos returned.
But it's not Spain the markets should be worried about.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Spanish Flu May Send European Union to Bed / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Browne
Recently, the world's economic leaders, including economists at the European Central Bank, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the U.S. Federal Reserve, supported by most of the mainstream financial media, assured the world that the debt agreement worked out between Greece and its creditors would help put an end to the European-wide debt crisis. In reality, the crisis has merely been papered over. Despite the broad rally in stock and bond markets over the past few weeks, I firmly believe that Greece will likely require another bailout within a year.