2012

Editor's note: The following press release was issued by Moody's in connection with yesterday's ratings action on the temporary European bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility.

I have said it in the past, but it bears repeating now in view of poor German economic data, as difficult as the austerity/bailout dance has been , it will become even more difficult in a downturn which affects Germany and other core…

The information is as stunning as it is counter-intuitive: federal spending has gone up less under President Obama than any president since Eisenhower.

A lot of pundits have come to the same conclusion that I have come to regarding problems in Spain, namely that the market is no longer willing to believe the country is solvent without European-wide intervention. The consensus, therefore,…

We have reached end-of-paradigm – the final failure of microeconomics masquerading as macro. The solution, the new macro paradigm, requires monetary literacy and numeracy. And this can only be achieved by removing the conceptual blinders by…

Moody's Investors Service issued the following press release in connection with European ratings actions earlier today.

The Swiss government bond curve is now negative for maturities of five years and under. Investors are willing to lock up a negative yield for 5 years just to get out of euro denominated assets without taking much FX risk.

After 1990 we removed what was left of financial regulations following the flurry of deregulation of the early 1980s that had freed the thrifts so that they could self-destruct. And we are shocked, SHOCKED!, that thieves took over the…

I think it goes without saying that the problems for Spanish and Italian regional governments are due to the austerity-induced double dip recession those economies are suffering. The real insight here is that this municipal - double dip…

I just wrote a post for Credit Writedowns Pro on the regional government problems in Spain. The following chart from El Pais is useful in that context.