Credit Writedowns

The situation in Spain has turned decidedly worse today. After yesterday's 3-notch downgrade by Moody's, yields on Spanish 10-year bonds are now hovering just around 7%. Credit default swaps for Spanish debt are now trading at 605 bps with…

"Moody's Investors Service has today downgraded Spain's government bond rating to Baa3 from A3, and has also placed it on review for possible further downgrade. Moody's expects to conclude the review within a maximum timeframe of three…

In late April, I wrote a post predicting why the EU is temporarily dropping the 3% hurdle. The gist of the post was that in the euro zone and in Europe more generally, the economy was decelerating much faster than anticipated. To get ahead…

Many of Spain's largest companies are well-diversified, from Telefonica to Repsol to even banking giants like BBVA and Santander. In my view, these are quality companies negatively impacted by the headlines on Spain. For value investors…

Nigel Farage isn't impressed by the Spanish bailout. Take a look

One of oil's most important characteristics is its fungibility, which means that a barrel of refined oil from Texas is equivalent to one from Saudi Arabia or Nigeria or anywhere else in the world. The global oil machine is built upon this…

Charles Kindleberger’s classic book on the Great Depression was originally published 40 years ago. In the preface to a new edition, two leading economists argue that the lessons are as relevant as ever.

Spain is now ranked ninth for default probability just behind Ireland, with an expected 40% chance of default in the next five years. The Spanish 10-year bond yield has fallen back to 6.70% after reaching a record euro zone high of 6.834%…

The euro zone sovereign debt crisis is reaching the end of the line. Spain and Italy are both simply too big to be bailed out. Yet as we speak, the yields on Spanish and Italian 10-year bonds are soaring, Spain's reaching a record 6.807%.…

The focus recently has all been on the Eurozone periphery, but signs of strained financial conditions are now showing up in German sovereign CDS. The spread has been steadily rising.