Credit Writedowns

Below is a table of all the Eurozone debt and deficit figures for 2009.  The chart is in German from the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, but I think the country names are clear except Österreich, which is German for Austria. The…

Highlights The US dollar remains firm against most of the major currencies today as the participants await the ECB meeting, which given the events in Europe, is the most important meeting arguably since 2008.  There are three…

Source: PBS

I am going to describe the beginnings of the Euro from a German point of view. I apologize if this post seems unduly harsh. It is meant to give you a more caricaturised view of the breakdown in the euro-zone which dominates the German…

Another classic from Bloomberg News. It runs about 22 minutes. I love Roach's quip in jest to Chanos: "You ignorant slut." That quip in jest belies the congruence in Roach and Chanos' views. Roach does say: "I'm not denying…

Meredith Whitney talks to Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil in a wide-ranging interview about the banking sector. This is a good one – the best I have seen - because you get to hear Whitney's views on the sector's stocks from a fundamental and a…

  Hat tip Scott.

In last month’s Absolute Return Letter I raised a yellow flag concerning the short term outlook for commodities. Quite a few readers asked me to elaborate on that, which is precisely what I am going to do. In the following, my assessment…

While Warren Buffett is out tarnishing his reputation with quotes about how "phenomenal" the ratings agencies' business model is, Bill Gross is accusing them of aiding and abetting the financial crisis. Here's a quote from Bill…

Within the euro-zone, Portugal comes in at #6. Spain and Ireland are not in the top ten. Source: CMA Sovereign Risk Monitor