Europe

Due to its size and importance, Germany has taken all of the criticism for enforcing a hard line on the austerity quid pro quo which allowed the euro zone bailouts to proceed. However, policy makers from a number of other countries share…

from the BBH Currency Strategy Team The European financial crisis is of historic proportions and it remains unresolved as the year draws to a close. The resolution remains elusive, but there seems to be a finite number of ways that the…

While the Moody’s downgrade of Ireland isn’t any surprise, coming on the heels of S&P’s move last week from A+ to BBB+, the sheer magnitude of five notches warrants a mention.  We haven’t seen anything like this since the Asian…

This is the last formal North American Daily for the 2010. We will release a shortened holiday mode for the next two weeks and will return to full publication 01/03/2011. Happy New Year! Highlights The US dollar is trading on an…

Today Moody's cut the credit rating for the Republic of Ireland a full five notches down to Baa1 from Aa2. In addition, the ratings agency placed a negative outlook on its rating for Ireland , a sign that further downgrades could follow.…

The dollar rally continued as US economic data continues to outperform, leading US bond yields higher.  US 2- and 10-year yields have increased by 17bp and 67bp over the past month and the rise in the 10-year to 3.51% is nearly a…

I liked David Rosenberg's Breakfast With Dave piece this morning. He got into QE2, bonds, Europe and Germany in particular. Let me hit on a few highlights here.  First, Rosenberg says the recent uptick in bond yields might put…

The ECB announced its subscription capital base of 5.8 bln euros would effectively be doubled to 10.8 bln euros effective at the end of the year. The move is not surprising and has been hinted for the better part of a week at least. It…

The problem is that the current approach – centred on dealing with liquidity problems now and solvency issues later – is not working. A liquidity approach that delays the day of reckoning may be good regional politics, but it's…

Russia is keen on developing stronger ties with both China and the EU in order to secure its global economic position. The recent agreement with China to begin Ruble-Renminbi trading in Russia is part of this effort. Last week, Marc…