Europe

There has been a lot of chatter of late about countries ditching the US dollar as the primary reserve currency and moving on to something else. Robert Zoellick mentioned gold as the alternative. Nicolas Sarkozy has been talking up special…

by William K. Black The struggle within the EU and the European Central Bank (ECB) over the nature of European project continues. The EU continues to be dominated by the French/German tandem. The Euro, once the great hope of the periphery…

by Win Thin Here are some more thoughts on S&P moving its outlook on Belgium’s AA+ rating to negative from stable. S&P noted that it may cut the rating by one notch within the next six months if the major political parties do not…

by Marc Chandler The Financial Times reports that as Trichet was holding a press conference after the recent ECB meeting, European central banks were buying large amounts of sovereign European bonds. Reports suggested that the amounts were…

by Marc Chandler A new factor has arisen that complicates the Federal Reserve’s task as it prepares for its last meeting of the year. The broad outlines of the agreement between President Obama and the Republican leadership on fiscal…

Muddling through isn’t working. This column argues that troubled Eurozone nations should simultaneously open restructuring talks while continuing to service their debts normally. Germany, France, and other core Eurozone nations would have…

Despite its large size relative to the small Irish economy, the bailout of Ireland is not working. Risk premiums continue to rise. This column argues that part of the problem lies in a seemingly innocuous provision in the rescue facility…

by Marc Chandler Spanish bonds have fallen each day this week. The 13 bp increase today brings the 10-year yield increase to 30 bp this week, easily the worst performing bond market within the euro zone. Portugal has the dubious honor of…

by Michael Schussele The people of Ireland have been impressed into a life of indentured servitude by the financial engineers of the IMF and EU to pay the debts of bankers (723 billion euro of guarantees) which were not their debts and to…

Here our thoughts regarding the rumored downgrade of Italy. While we remain negative on the ratings for peripheral euro zone, we don't think a downgrade of Italy is a sure thing. Its numbers have always been bad, and have in fact stayed…