ECB

This week I am doing the weekly newsletter in two parts, both outside the paywall. This is part two. Previously, this column argued that it was folly for the euro zone to take the bailout and austerity approach because it risked breaking…

According to US administration sources, Barack Obama has received guarantees from European leaders who met Tuesday at the G-20 that soon, likely at next European Council meeting, Europe will announce a comprehensive plan that is designed to…

the ECB decided to prop up the German economy with low interest rates, rates that produced negative real interest rates and housing bubbles in Ireland and Spain. This was a policy designed to "bail out" the indebted German economy. We…

The euro zone sovereign debt crisis is reaching the end of the line. Spain and Italy are both simply too big to be bailed out. Yet as we speak, the yields on Spanish and Italian 10-year bonds are soaring, Spain's reaching a record 6.807%.…

The Target2 problem is really a manifestation of an accelerating bank run. I have said many times, this is my major concern, the bank runs and the resulting shrinking credit and likely deadweight loss that accompanies them.

ELA is the acronym for Emergency Lending Assistance. This is direct lending by the national central bank, with ECB authorization to local banks with more liberal collateral requirements. The national central bank is responsible/liable for…

The talk about Greece being kicked out of the euro zone has clearly been overdone. Some have suggested that the Germans had reached their fill and that they would 'stare the Greeks down' in this high stakes game of chicken. I have…

Ever since Willem Buiter mentioned the probability of a Spanish bailout some time in 2012, speculation has been rife about a Spanish bailout. In this column I argue that Spain is still too big to bail and that any bailout for Spain must…

Collapsing credit demand ultimately leads to a loss of banking capital, which is the exact opposite of what the LTRO program was set up to achieve. Interestingly, as the charts below show, banks seem to think that there will be a slowing of…

It looks like the EU has finally figured out that austerity is anti-growth and that in the EU context this is leading to debt deflation. The word on the street is that the EU is prepared to temporarily relax the 3% Maastricht hurdle. This…