capital

Sheila Bair argues that Europe's banks are undercapitalised due in large part to regulatory capture.

Markets rallied strongly in response to the European developments. Yet it is an exaggeration to think that risk appetites returned as the whole month of October has seen equities, emerging markets, commodities and foreign currencies trend…

Much of macroeconomic policymaking is trial and error. This column discusses calamitous error on the part of Iceland’s policymakers, in the hope that others can at least try something else.

Here’s a very informative chart via Morgan Stanley showing the deterioration in the Eurozone’s key credit indicators. Banks will no doubt sell assets, at least in part, as a way to meet their required capital targets.

Markets’ initial reaction to the latest EU emergency summit has been positive. Risk assets are trading up, risk-sensitive currencies are up, European bank stocks are up, and the broader stock market is as well. This relief rally is…

On the Max Keiser show, I said that Greece has been sent to debtor's prison. The goal is for creditors to Greece to get as much out of the Greek government as possible before they default.

Europe is slowly but inexorably moving toward its own version of TARP—the U.S. “toxic asset relief program”. Rather than sub-prime mortgages and related derivatives, the toxic assets in Europe are sovereign credits, which in some cases –…

Europe is way over banked and the chart illustrates the monumental task and cost of recapitalizing some of their largest banks. The size of the largest four banking institutions in France, for example, represents over 300 percent of the…

Moody's decision to place Popular's ratings on review for possible downgrade is driven by our view that the combined entity emerging after the integration with Pastor is likely to have a weaker credit profile than Popular's standalone…

Whether the writedowns make investors feel relieved because of the alleged balance sheet transparency remains to be seen. However, the balance sheet woes at Erste highlights how active banks within the EU are in cross-border relationships.