2011

GOLDMAN SACHS: The ECB Should Take A Leaf Out Of The Swiss Book credible commitments backed up with the threat of unlimited action are likely in general to be much more effective, and cheaper, than vaguer intervention…

I continue to predict that Europe will move to change its constitution to include greater fiscal integration but also include explicit mechanisms for countries to leave the euro area.

European stocks, Italian bonds and the euro are rebounding after Italy’s BTP auction and ECB containment strategy. European political uncertainty remains dominant driver; Australia employment better than expected. Bank of Indonesia…

Since everyone is talking about sovereign deficits, austerity and the ECB’s duties and legal limitations, let’s go straight to the Lisbon Treaty text. Below are the most relevant parts of the Lisbon Treaty governing how the EU is supposed…

The word is that BofA did in fact consider declaring their Countrywide subsidiary bankrupt to ring fence the rest of the company from Countrywide. It got as far as a board vote this past summer. This Wall Street Journal video discusses…

I have been saying for some time that the euro zone is coming apart at the seams. This makes a lot of sense. The question is how to do it. Here’s my suggestion from a few days ago.

We are experiencing a European bond market crash. There’s not much time left. Make your trades now because a policy response is imminent; I’m thinking by Monday morning.

This is a translation from a Handelsblatt interview with Amgela Merkel. MUST READ.

The scale of the Italian challenge is far greater than Greece's as Italy's sovereign debt is bigger than Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal's put together. Greece has, prior to the coming haircuts, about 350 bln euros of debt. Italy has to…

Politicians, Treasury Secretaries, etc. would have you believe that “moral hazard” is something we should only worry about in the abstract, in the future, when they’ve moved on to another job. But now a study confirms with hard facts: moral…