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This is a post by Edward Hugh, who also blogs at Global Economy Matters. “If you don’t fully understand an instrument, don’t buy it.” To the above advice from Emilio Botín, Executive Chairman of Spain’s Grupo Santander, I would simply…

Edward Hugh here. Well, I may say there were no surprises, but in fact the Greek economy contracted more than many observers expected in the fourth quarter, while downward revisions to the rest of 2009 converted the present recession into…

There are a lot of interlocking threads in the Greek saga. One consistent theme that ties all of the different threads together is the fragility of complex systems. In our globalized and complex world of finance and banking, every major…

One of the larger problems in the unfolding meltdown in Greece is the fraud apparently perpetrated by past Greek governments to conceal their true levels of debt. This is having a very adverse effect on Greek credit spreads to (German)…

Commenting about the recent Wall Street Journal article “Housing rebound in Canada spurs talk of new bubble,” Rolfe Winkler of Reuters says Last week Paul Krugman toasted the sobriety of Canadian banks. Among other things, he said that…

This post was originally published at A Fistful of Euros Well, as reported over the weekend on this blog, the EU Commission did in fact demand “more sacrifices” from the Greek people, and in the end Prime Minister Papandreou had to make a…

John Mauldin’s latest is about spotting asset bubbles and the potential government policy response. But he also has a lot to say about the latest employment situation survey and the situation in Greece with an apt comparison to the U.S. In…

Today, I received a press release from the complete list of federal government regulators of the financial industry which all but ordering banks to lend to small businesses. Clearly, regulators are concerned as comments by Marc Chandler…

Marc Chandler, Global Head of Currency Strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman has an alarming note out this morning on economic policy.  I take notice because Chandler usually writes in more nuanced and non-apocalyptic tones.  For…

It was always naïve to believe that a crisis so deep and profound was going to go away with a whimper; however, an increase of more than 50% in global equity prices can be very seductive, and nine months of virtually uninterrupted gains…