Europe

The Wall Street Journal's Matt Phillips describes the turmoil in European sovereign bond markets. He says some traders tell him that they now consider countries like France a part of the periphery and are pricing it as such. This risk-off…

2011/11/16 00:43 - Japan's Hidden Jobless Hits 4.69mn, Worse Than After Lehman Shock The number of Japanese that want to work but are not actively seeking employment has surpassed levels from after the global financial crisis…

If you are a debtor who wants to cut your debt load for fear of a liquidity-induced insolvency, there are two ways to make your debt metrics improve. One is to increase revenue and the other is to shrink the debt. Think of it this way:…

EuroStoxx 600 is down over 1%, EZ bond yields mostly higher after Spanish and French bond auctions. Financial market stress (banking and credit) continues to intensify amid lack of progress on debt crisis. UK October retail sales saw…

Monetary union was not a good idea, even in the best of circumstances. Time to abandon the failed experiment?

Former bank of England central banker and present Citigroup Chief Economist Willem Buiter spoke to Tom Keene this morning on Bloomberg Radio. His view is similar to mine, that Europe must act now to avoid a default. He believes we could…

This phrase 'lender of last resort' has been bandied around by people who, it seems to me, have no idea what lender of last resort actually means, to be perfectly honest. It is very clear from its origin that lender of last resort by a…

And just two days after I reported on the starve-the-beast strategy that’s forcing the SEC to pursue Mickey-Mouse settlements with the big banks, we learn of plans to handicap the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission in a similar…

The well known eurosceptic Nigel Farage is having a field day over the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone. Farage says that the EU lacks democratic legitimacy, a complaint heard ever more often during this crisis. He goes further,…

Pressure is mounting on Spain. The 10-year yield today is essentially back to where it was when the ECB broadened its sovereign bond purchase scheme to include Spanish and Italian bonds. On Oct 27, the 10-year yield was near 5.33%. Today it…