fiscal

European sovereigns return to the capital markets more substantially next week as 2012 issuance gets under way. Between bills and bonds, around 35-40 bln euros will be sold. Maturing issues and coupon payments will cover about…

I don't expect any response from Paul Krugman, Alex Tabarrok or Tyler Cowen on this but they know who I am and read my articles from time to time. I am going to add my voice to a debate they have been having in the blogosphere on debt,…

Nothing in Spain is exactly as it appears to be, and that few of the arguments politicians and so called “experts” advance are entirely innocent. Most “information” circulating in Spain is highly politicised. Really “independent” analysts…

The bottom line is that Italy is both too big to fail and too big to be bailed out, which is why it is still hanging dangerously in limbo-land. Since, as I argue in this article, some sort of restructuring or other is well nigh inevitable…

I thought I should highlight that Marshall Auerback was on Fox Business yesterday since he writes here occasionally. I wish it were more often! Marshall was on message regarding the euro zone debt crisis. His point: Additional liquidity is…

It seems to have been none other than Paul Krugman who made it safe for others to adopt MMT. He shined his headlights on the obvious: the reason why interest rates on government debt are not exploding in countries like Japan, the US, and…

Let’s see how it is really done in the US—where the Treasury really does hold accounts in both private banks and the Fed, but can write checks only on its account at the Fed. Further, the Fed is prohibited from buying Treasuries directly…

All in all, the negative fallout from the EU sovereign debt crisis and the outlook for the U.S. economy are likely to have a strong downward pull on the stock market. Rather than reflecting fear, the market seems unusually complacent as…

The following is a statement issued by Herbert Hoover's White House on 2 June 1931 regarding the federal budget deficit for the year. I have highlighted the parts most relevant to today's situation.

The ECB President admitted that budgets cuts and tax increases are contractionary -“in the short term” he added - but there are two ways to lessen their negative impact on growth: the confidence-enhancing effect that will follow the new…