bailout

Clearly, Stark sees the monetisation path the ECB is on as not at all compatible with thee ECB’s mandate. Separately, the noises coming out of the German governing coalition show exasperation with the progress in Greece. Edward Hugh writes…

The Greek tragedy in several acts would appear to be approaching a climactic moment. The warnings coming out of Berlin all week have been hard to ignore: “Greece either puts up or shoves off” would seem to be the blunt message being…

The ruling by the German Constitutional Court does allow the EFSF to operate as planned. Most commentators have focused on this. However, the language of the decision means there can be no eurobonds and no “supra-national” fiscal agent…

Markets continued to be dominated by the EZ sovereign debt crisis and the uncertainty surrounding key political events this month, which are likely to shape the market response in the months ahead. Of the key political events that take…

US dollar broadly firmer vs. majors as global growth concerns, euro zone tensions pick up. Merkel's CDU lost weekend election in her home state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Risk assets under pressure, Swiss franc still outperforming;…

The Greeks are starting to play hardball on their private sector debt swap warning the deal could crater if the 90 percent participation is not met. We think there are other reasons why it is trouble.

The fact that Italy's 5-year CDS prices remain elevated (376 now vs 388 on Aug 4 peak) warns that ECB bond buying, fiscal austerity has not convinced private sector investors that the worst is truly past. This offers a poor backdrop from…

This has been an extremely tumultuous week throughout the capital and commodity markets. August itself has been a cruel month. The German stock market has lost around a quarter of its value. A marked slow down in the US and Europe in Q2 has…

There appear to be no happy outcomes here (although as my friend, Tom Ferguson always reminds me, “If you want to have a happy ending, go see a Disney film”). We appear to be entering most dangerous time for Europe since World War II.

The bottom line is this: many in Northern Europe see this crisis as the result of the fiscal profligacy of bad actors which were known before the Euro’s existence to be bad actors. All of these countries except Spain have been running huge…