crisis

Last spring and summer I wrote a series of articles on the bleak situation in Spain, centred on the Spanish Cajas (savings banks), the imploded housing market and the high level of unemployment. The gist of these posts was that Spain faced…

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, John Lipsky, First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, answers questions about taking action on the euro and intervention in Greece. Also see IMF Official: Euro’s Slide Not…

As noted in the daily, Eurogroup head and Lux Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has played down need to intervene in the foreign exchange market, saying there was no need to defend the euro.  Yet in the same interview, he claimed that…

Because of short covering, we may eventually see a much larger reversal in the Euro than we have seen to date. And although I recently noted that the Euro was still overvalued on a purchasing power parity basis, nothing goes down in a…

A short story inspired by the German shortselling ban. Once upon a time there were four little pigs and the time came for them to leave home and seek their fortunes. Before they left, their mother told them "Whatever you do, do it the…

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters in Brussels today (Monday) that getting their deficits down was “the only task that everyone has to fulfill for himself and for the common good.” Meanwhile, over in New York, Paul…

If an ECB in QE mode, €60 billion in cash, €440 billion from a pooled EMU effort and €220 billion from the IMF only lasts a week, then I'd humbly submit that we have a problem.

When bankruptcy comes, it does so normally as a result of a liquidity crisis. This is true for countries as much as it is for companies. It's not as if someone in charge walks in one day and says "you are insolvent so you must default…

As we are about move into the fourth day of the week where EU policy makers together with the IMF and the ECB launched an unprecedented series of aid tools to combat the mounting risk of a collapse in Greece and elsewhere in the European…

Imagine a situation in which 49 other states are forced to unite together to help forestall the imminent insolvency of California, and you'll get a good idea of the limitations inherent in the EU "rescue proposal" for Greece and…