Credit Writedowns

In spite of the drop in VIX, there is no confidence that the recent market stability is sustainable over the longer term.

Some maintain that Italy and Spain risk losing market access for their sovereign bonds despite drops in yields. A recent Vox column by Francesco Giavazzi suggested that Italy could and should avoid a bailout. This column argues that in…

A study of European banks by the consultancy Price Waterhouse Coopers is making the rounds in the German-language press. I haven't seen the study itself but it is communicated by PwC in Frankfurt earlier today. Hence the interest in…

It is clear that lending to Spanish banks is now funded entirely via TARGET2 (borrowing from the rest of the Eurosystem) rather than with deposits. In fact deposits at the Bank of Spain by the Spanish government and Spanish banks (excess…

Last weekend, I got that familiar blue screen of death on my PC laptop, you know that blue screen with a bunch of cryptic lines of words on it that tells you your computer just crashed and everything you were working on was for naught. I…

I don't think China or Australia is falling out of bed yet but the situation is clearly deteriorating in both countries. A lot of pundits have begun to question the official statistics out of China, especially given the weak electricity…

Quick post here to highlight then continued losses in Spanish property markets and the effect on Spanish banks. House prices in Spain were down 11.2% year-on-year in July. That's the largest fall since March 2011 and it brings all in losses…

I want to concentrate on the popped Web 2.0 bubble in the wake of Groupon's earnings and subsequent share price slide. Web 2.0 is for real. I know that may be a strange way to start a post on Groupon and the Web 2.0 IPO bubble but it's…

In May I wrote a post asking "Why can’t people understand national accounting?" and I was heartened that the post seemed to get a lot of traction. Most people don't get it. In fact, I didn't get it until a few years ago. Here's a chart…

Why is the global economy hamstrung by heavy debts and weak banks? Or put another way, why doesn’t deleveraging happen, and the weight of debt reduce, and why doesn’t the economy expand so the weak banks can once more become robust and…