2012

The long-held view in German policy circles has been that the European sovereign debt crisis is a clear indication that the stability and growth pact (SGP) was not sufficiently robust in addressing fiscal discipline. The ECB is now…

This chart was attached to a very good front page article in today's Wall Street Journal by Marcus Walker on How a Radical Greek Rescue Plan Fell Short. The article gives a blow-by-blow account on how the Greek crisis has unfolded and a…

The evidence is becoming increasingly clear that German policy makers are prepared for Greece to exit the euro zone. Knowing this changes how one should view the likely policy responses in Europe. In the short term, this means allowing more…

Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, spoke with Bloomberg TV's Betty Liu. The overall gist of his commentary was that a euro zone breakup would be beneficial and that he believes European peripheral equities are…

In the links today are a lot of links in both English and Spanish about the bailout of Spain's fourth largest bank Bankia. With the partial nationalisation, Spain is moving one step closer to Ireland in committing the sovereign government…

Earlier this week I wrote a post called "Europe edges closer to the endgame" in reaction to the French and Greek elections. Today I want to expand on this for the weekly members' post. While I think we are finally arriving at the…

Hugh Hendry made some remarks about confiscation last week that I addressed in my TV appearance on RT's capital account (see video here). The gist of his comments was that he fears government's ability to confiscate wealth as a means of…

A few of the investment banks have a macro or economic surprise index. In March I mentioned Barclays' version. This month I wanted to highlight Citi's version and what it is telling us about the US economy.

There has been a lot of back and forth by academic economists on monetary policy. The reason is two-fold. First, during the so-called Great Moderation many economists increasingly looked to monetary over fiscal policy for countercyclical…

The ECRI released the following chart on the year-over-year growth in US real personal income. The takeaway here is that personal income growth is seriously flagging going into the fiscal cliff which promises to turn income growth decidedly…