election

This daily commentary is a bronze level members-only post. I wonder how the oil issue is going to play out in this particular election since everyone seems to be talking about how high the price of gasoline/petrol is. In the US, we are…

The LTROs may have helped ease this year's roll-over risk (Spain has met almost 50% of this year's refinancing needs). But they have not substantially altered the market's views of the risks of an eventual restructuring.

The official creditors won the battle. Greece will be given the money so that they can service their debts. They will have an EC task force embedded into Greece to push for compliance and the escrow-like account ensures a priority to debt…

My takeaway here is that people are desperate and they are willing to support any party that has a solution to their economic plight, irrespective of whether that party is considered extreme.

There is plenty of room for policy error. The reasons to fear a Lehman-like event still seem compelling. European officials suggest the problem is the lack of implementation of reform and growth measures in Greece. No doubt there is an…

Despite the Greek parliament's approval of austerity measures, there is still considerable uncertainty in the Greek situation. This post outlines many of the issues still up in the air.

Polls suggest that in the first round of balloting in late April, Sarkozy is trailing his Socialist challenger Hollande 31%-24.5%. Marina Le Pen's candidacy appears sufficiently strong to deny either candidate a majority in the first round.

The latest Gallup poll shows the approval rating for Congress at a record low 10%. 86% disapprove.

Fannie and Freddie have already been nationalized and the government is already on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars of losses as a result. Clearly, this makes it a lot easier to use the GSEs as vehicles to pump money into the…

Investors must still be worried about the fallout from the European meltdown. However, the situation in the US is looking much better than it did last week because of this aggressive policy response.