Political Economy

That’s what Philipp Rösler, the leader of the junior partner in Germany’s coalition government, is saying. Barry Eichengreen says that this kind of talk is counterproductive.

Now, this could just be bluster and rhetoric. But then again it may be something else. I think it bears watching. Just following up on the post by Global Macro Monitor this morning, I note from French daily L’Express the following passage.

Here is something brewing off radar. We’re wondering if this is a factor as to why crude is bid and gold is coming back?

If a central bank guarantees investors credibly that they can invest in certain debt instruments and not suffer principal or interest repayment risk, but only currency and inflation risk, some investors are almost definitely going to buy…

Yesterday I was on RT with Demetri Kofinas (@CoveringDelta) talking about the future of the euro zone. Lauren Lyster asked us where this was headed and we both agreed that it really was all about Italy. I just posted on why questioning…

Now it's on to a Greek coalition government with the FinMin at the helm. Get ready for more austerity!!

"Yesterday, the headline in the Frankfurter Zeitung was “Democracy is Junk.” The meaning was the financial sector was saying that democracy is incompatible with collecting debts and, when debtors can’t pay, with foreclosing on the public…

Harvard Economist Kenneth Rogoff has a post up at Project Syndicate which does a good job in laying out the conundrum that Europe faces in the sovereign debt crisis. He theme is exchange rates and currency revulsion. But the underlying…

"The treaties indeed confirm what we have been saying here: the treaty doesn't foresee an exit from the euro zone without exiting the EU, so indeed that is the current situation." -European Commission spokeswoman Karolina…

Imposed austerity does directly alter output and employment- for the worse. Additionally, for all practical purposes, there is universal global support for austerity as the means supporting global output and employment. So even if the euro…