debt deflation

The core of the issue is not whether the country could see one, or even two, quarters of positive performance, but whether any faltering recovery will be sustained out into the future, through 2014 and beyond. It is here that all the old…

When massive private and public sector debts result in a credit collapse and recession, the efforts to pare down the debt is deflationary. Measures to inflate our way out of the situation are likely to fail as households are attempting to…

The rise and rise of Japanese debt is far from benign, and the dynamic, we are convinced, will at some point become unsustainable. Unfortunately by the time we reach that point it will be too late. Indeed, given that we agree with Krugman…

Latvia went through a housing bubble and bust that was just as severe as Spain, Ireland, the UK, and the US. The policy response in Latvia was austerity. But was it a success? It depends on who you ask.

Three years on, I remain absolutely convinced that deflation, driven primarily by consumers eager to repair their balance sheets, will be a powerful force for many years to come but, at the same time, I must admit that I see worrying signs…

Two weeks ago I told you that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s humiliating defeat to Merkel had narrowed options to sovereign bailout, monetisation or default for Spain. Now that the Spanish bank bailout is unraveling and Catalonia is…

This is a brief follow-on to the last post on whether we should be optimistic, in particular now that the US housing market is improving. If you think about it, the problem now is that all debtors - public and private - are taking the…

Tim Duy has an interesting piece out that dovetails with something I had been saying in the comments here just yesterday. It has to do with austerity as an economic policy response in this post-crisis world. According to Bloomberg News,…

A study of European banks by the consultancy Price Waterhouse Coopers is making the rounds in the German-language press. I haven't seen the study itself but it is communicated by PwC in Frankfurt earlier today. Hence the interest in…

Everyone seems to be talking about Mario Draghi these days. They think his comments about the ECB doing "whatever it takes" are important. They're not. They are meaningless. Here's why.