Economy

John Hussman's latest weekly letter contained a very nice chart on the trend for GDP growth in the largest developed economies. The data show a high degree of correlation over the past ten years.

The two charts below give one a sense of the relative size of the government debt markets in the euro zone as well as the size of those markets compared to each country's GDP. Estonia has both the smallest government debt market and the…

Editor's Note: Below is the press release from the FDIC

Here's a chart via Bloomberg that gives the overall picture. The data are poor in all regions including Germany and France. Markit, which collects the data, says that the latest PMIs are consistent with GDP in Europe contracting 0.5% this…

ELA is the acronym for Emergency Lending Assistance. This is direct lending by the national central bank, with ECB authorization to local banks with more liberal collateral requirements. The national central bank is responsible/liable for…

Ray Dalio was featured in Barron's at the weekend. He spoke about the various options available to affect a private sector deleveraging. He sees three ways which he calls austerity, restructuring, and money printing. Below is an excerpt…

The talk about Greece being kicked out of the euro zone has clearly been overdone. Some have suggested that the Germans had reached their fill and that they would 'stare the Greeks down' in this high stakes game of chicken. I have…

I still find it hard to believe a Greek exit from the euro zone is imminent. So it's good to see someone push back on the concept that a Greek exit from the euro zone is imminent. John Dizard at the FT does just this in a piece out today…

The fact that Spanish bank shares have rallied today (3.1% at pixel time) and have easily outperformed the market (IBEX up 0.3%) following Moody's downgrade of 16 Spanish banks should be understood as a bit of a fluke. Some observers will…

The Spanish banking system is insolvent and the Spanish government simply does not have the wherewithal to clean it up. This is the problem in Spain that has come to a head, particularly now after the rescue of Bankia, Spain's fourth…