Europe

By Marc Chandler The Swiss National Bank does not miss an opportunity to remind market participants that it is determined to cap the Swiss franc's appreciation. The cost of imposing its will appears to be rising. The Financial Times today…

The Financial Times is reporting that Portugal is likely to need an extension of the three-year bailout plan it received in 2010. This is a disaster for the euro zone and I am writing this post to explain why. The most pressing issue is…

Bill Gross has admitted that he has started buying Spanish and Italian debt. That's quite a turnaround given he had been saying earlier that he wouldn't touch their sovereign debt with a ten-foot barge pole. So the question is why. And the…

By Marc Chandler The US dollar and Japanese yen are starting the week on a firm note, despite their respective markets closed for holidays. The gains are concentrated against the major European currencies, with the dollar-itself little…

The following is an excerpt of an article written exactly twenty years ago on 8 October 1992 by the late Wynne Godley, a British economist, who predicted disaster for Europe’s planned single currency. This is the single most cogent and…

When it comes to the euro zone, most eyes are fixed on Spain and Greece where a debt deflationary death spiral has begun. But the economic situation remains fragile in other countries of the so-called periphery. Italy is the largest…

By Marc Chandler The most important thing that ECB President Draghi has said in his prepared remarks was the reluctance to reschedule Greek bond holdings on grounds that would be tantamount to monetary financing.    Really?  Buying the…

This is the first of a few daily links posts. Here I want to concentrate on the economy in light of the manufacturing data released earlier today. I was on BNN today for the headline show at 12:30 and I said pretty much the same thing I…

By Marc Chandler The US dollar is going into month and quarter end on a soft note.  The greenback had been generally firm against most of the major foreign currencies, but the Japanese yen, since around mid-month, but the news stream…

Two weeks ago I told you that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s humiliating defeat to Merkel had narrowed options to sovereign bailout, monetisation or default for Spain. Now that the Spanish bank bailout is unraveling and Catalonia is…