European breakup

The austerity regime being adopted throughout Europe, by surplus and deficit countries alike, amid deleveraging, begs the question of where will aggregate demand come from? Moreover, iIf Greece can lower its debt burden by transferring some…

Here's how I see it happening, based on my Italian default post.

Last April I said that unless we see a multi-year recovery economy in which the nagging debt and default issues are entirely removed, economic nationalism will return with a vengeance. And that means political conflict in which the…

This is how it's going down in Greece right now. The sentiment is very Anti-German on the eve of the austerity/bailout decision. The debt haircut and writedowns coming of upwards of 50% is a default in everything but name. Technical default…

Even if the private sector participation sufficiently high, will it be enough to put Greece's debt on a sustainable path? This seems unlikely and there is increasing risk that the ECB forgoes getting anything but its initial investment…

The results are in from the poll I began a month ago. By an overwhelming majority, Credit Writedowns readers believe the crisis will continue.

The best resolution, and the one Keynes urged without success on the US in the 1920s and 1930s, is that Germany take steps to reverse its trade surplus. It could boost disposable household income and household consumption by cutting income…

There were only two questions that mattered, going into the EU summit. Would leaders come up with any actions to help end the immediate crisis? Falling short of this, would any of their actions allow the European Central Bank to step up its…

The British decision to veto the proposed new EU treaty is not surprisingly provoking an avalanche of commentary this weekend. Among journalists, at least, there seems to be a consensus that David Cameron committed some kind of major…

News links for 9 December 2011 including posts on the European sovereign debt crisis, politics and elections in the US and Russia, and the situation at MF Global