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The latest information out of Europe comes via the Financial Times where Miles Johnson writes that the Spanish are geared up to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Troika. Other countries are holding things up, according to this…

Mired in the worst recession since the 1970s, Portugal's governing coalition is going to turn up the austerity dial even higher. The goal is to reduce the Portuguese deficit to 4.5% of GDP in 2013 in order to be in a position to switch out…

In Europe, Spain is expected to formally apply for a Troika bailout in November. Despite the Rajoy's government's denials that it has not sought a bailout, Rajoy and his ministers have never specifically said that they refused to consider a…

Do you remember when Europe used to say the IMF would get involved in Europe over the euro's dead body? Well I certainly do. Back before Greece got its bailout deathwish, it wasn't even clear there would be a bailout, let alone one with…

Many are unaware of this but there is an housing bubble and bust cycle ongoing right now in the euro zone core. I'm talking about the Netherlands, of course. Prices are now back to levels last seen in 2004 and still dropping. The problem in…

The Financial Times is reporting that Portugal is likely to need an extension of the three-year bailout plan it received in 2010. This is a disaster for the euro zone and I am writing this post to explain why. The most pressing issue is…

It occurs to me that the whole furore over patents in the software industry really revolves around the role of government in setting the regulatory ground rules for business and government’s influence in the private sector. A recent post in…

Two months ago, we got four scenarios for the fiscal cliff via Credit Suisse and Sober Look. All of these scenarios called for at least a 0.9% drag on the economy, meaning that we should fully expect at least a 0.9% drop in annualized GDP…

This is a quick piece here on the labor participation rate, following up on the piece I wrote last week about the jobs numbers not being consistent with recession. Mike Shedlock at Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis and Bill McBride at…

Here's a brief, late Friday post to follow up on the jobs number. If you look at recoveries from past recessions in the United States, what you usually see is a fall in the year-over-year unemployment rate as the economy gathers steam. And…