Europe

The BELLS are a group of four countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) who in their wisdom decided to adopt and then stick “come hell or high water” to a currency peg with to Euro. Thus was opened one of the more interesting and…

The US dollar is mostly weaker as peripheral sentiment improve. Spanish bond auction went well, and market expects IMF/EU approval of new Greek package. With equity markets largely down today, FX decouples from the slowdown theme for now.

Europe’s monetary union is simply one of the most important experiments of our time. Can the countries whose wars against each other shaped to a large extent the past millennium, if not longer, form a sustainable monetary union without…

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.

Greece is clearly insolvent. The Europeans should put a plan in place to deal with Greece and to reduce contagion. The contagion to Italy and Belgium is happening because of uncertainty and the inability to put forward a credible solution…

US dollar is broadly weaker as market sentiment builds on yesterday’s improvement. Official and unofficial views on Greece are not in short supply, but vary across a wide range. Germany may be stepping back from restructuring talk regarding…

Once divorce from the euro is complete, Germany will regain its fiscal freedom. This is itself something the Germans should celebrate, providing their government takes advantage of their newfound fiscal freedom. Remember, once it returns to…

Within the context of our Macro-Global Discretionary Managed Accounts Trading Program, we are bearish on European stock markets, and are becoming increasingly interested in the bearish side of the US equity market. We are bearish on bond…

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of talking on CNBC along with Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman about the European sovereign debt crisis. I also wrote a piece in the New York Times about the same issue, concentrated on Greece. While…

This is what I’m listening to tonight. Enjoy. P.S. – I was on CNBC with Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman and wrote a piece in the New York Times this afternoon on the European sovereign debt crisis. I will have more on this and the…