ECB

Greece and Ireland have become the litmus test for whether economies will be sacrificed in attempts to pay debts that cannot be paid. An interregnum is threatened during which the road to default and permanent austerity will carve out more…

The creditors know that the game is up. All they can do is take as much as they can, as long as they can, pay themselves bonuses that are “free” from recapture by public prosecutors, and run to their offshore banking centers.

The unscheduled meeting between several euro zone finance ministers, Eurogroup head Juncker, EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Rehn, ECB President Trichet and a few other senior officials was important. It marks the official recognition that…

Dollar stronger against most majors, but the yen is the strongest currency today, breaking 80 The ECB is meeting and Trichet’s press conference should be the key news today BOE leaves rates unchanged as expected

The euro continues to surge this morning, trading ahead of $1.49, despite some US short covering against some of the majors and a mixed tone in risk appetite, buoyed by a combination of drivers. For one, many see the risk premium in the…

The euro is struggling to extend its advancing streak to the eleventh session. However, the main driver, of divergent monetary policy stances remains intact. In fact, news today that 3-month Euribor is at 2-year highs and 3-month Libor was…

In April 1989, Mexico's external debt negotiator, Angel Gurria, asked his country's commercial bank creditors for a 55 percent haircut. This was the opening pitch of the newly created Brady Plan, which finally addressed both the debt…

If there is a single factor that was the main driver of US dollar in the first quarter, it would be the divergence between the trajectory of US and European monetary policy. The Federal Reserve is still engaged in easing monetary policy…

The results of the Irish stress tests are going to be released this afternoon at 430PM Irish time. I will be talking about the implications for investors in European markets on CNBC's Power Lunch show. I think one has to be cautious…

ECB President Trichet remained hawkish in comments today, noting that inflation is persistently above the target of just below 2%. Yet ECB monetary policy is not base don one pillar but two. The other pillar is money supply. Money supply…