Europe

What are the Swiss doing selling dollars? I don't have an answer to this question. But, I thought I would posit it because a reader tipped me off to a development via the Blog Alea:

Politicians in Washington D.c. have cooked up a nice way to re-create the mistakes of the Great Depression by attaching a 'Buy American' provision onto the stimulus bill making its way through Congress. Apparently the Canadians and…

Danish Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen is preparing Denmark for admission to the Eurozone. Despite my skepticism about the Euro as a currency, I would say that Denmark is a perfect candidate for entry. The Danish economy is already very…

As this deepest of recessions takes hold, an increasing number of countries are seeing outbreaks of civil unrest. First it was Greece. Later, we saw unrest in the Baltics in Riga and Vilnius. Now, Iceland is experiencing the same. These…

The need to bailout banks for their aggressive lending in central and eastern Europe is becoming ever more apparent. An Austrian bank has taken the lead in getting a consortium of banks together to lobby the European Union for bailout…

I am skeptical as to the economic benefits of the Eurozone. In my view, the Euro has always been more of a political construct than an economic one. Nevertheless, the Euro has functioned quite well as a leading international currency in the…

The riots on the streets of Vilnius and Riga in the Baltics are not being covered in the least in the U.S. media (Hat tip Ken). I believe they should because, as with Greece, the social unrest we are witnessing in those countries is the…

The European Central Bank cut its benchmark rate 50 basis points (0.50%) to 2% because of weakness in the Eurozone. While a cut was widely anticipated, it was not known whether the ECB would cut 25 or 50 basis points. However, the cut of…

With the economy weakening significantly around the globe, the budgets of sovereign nations are coming under increased pressure. As a result S&P has put a number of countries under review for potential credit downgrades. However, now,…

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has picked up on the decline in trade flows that many have highlighted in recent months. This time, he looks at European-Asian trade flows and sees some major problems.