banks

In Spain, it is well-known that many of the financial institutions need more capital. However, the question is how much capital. Spain has run dubious quality stress tests that say the banks need less than 40 billion euros. Others believe…

We now know that Spain has received a standard bailout package like Greece, Portugal and Ireland before it despite attempts by the Spanish government to dress this bailout up as something different. Below is a quick analysis of just what…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a brilliant political tactician. After the latest EU Summit, it seemed she had capitulated after being rounded on by France's Hollande in an effort by Italy's Monti and Spain's Rajoy to prevent the market…

The EU Summit decision on banking union is being questioned by some economists in Germany. This column argues that a banking union is a critical step in ending the EZ crisis and building a more stable EZ financial architecture. It is a…

The great thing about micro is that when you step away from the scary macro headlines, there is a fair bit of competition and innovation going on in the world. The technology sector is a big part about that.

The biggest news is that the EU is already backtracking on the Euro summit deal that decoupled the sovereign-bank tie which had been causing Spanish and Italian yields to rise. And predictably, Spanish and Italian yields have risen once…

Last week's newsletter focused on Monti and Rajoy forcing Europe into true EuroTARP as the chief headline coming out of the latest European summit. A lot of other commentary focused on the agreement to let the ESM/EFSF buy up sovereign…

Liberalizing interest rates means that those sectors of the economy who have benefitted from very low lending rates – SOEs, local and municipal governments, real estate developers, and other large borrowers – are likely to find many reasons…

Here's a second batch of links. I think the Bloomberg piece on Spanish banks is a big highlight here. Essentially, Bloomberg tells us that Spain may be overestimating bank profits and therefore underestimating the capital shortfall of its…

This week's newsletter will focus on Europe again as this morning the European summit has produced significant changes in European economic policy. Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy and Italian Prime Minister Monti threatened to 'block…