Ireland

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 Irish government scrapped a planned recapitalization of Anglo Irish Bank and moved straight to full nationalization. While some may view this as a necessary move to shore up a troubled institution, I see this as ominous news because…

Today the Irish government has unveiled a 10 billion euro plan to recapitalise its outsized banking sector. I have posted a number of times about the depth of woes in Ireland including the high debt-to-gdp level, the crashing property…

You think things are bad where you were. Well, then, take a look at Ireland. Irish punters are really taking it on the chin. Stocks are down 75% from their peak in February 2007. This makes 2008 the worst year for Irish equities since…

Today's round-up is going to principally be about the three CCC's of Countries, Citigroup and Corporates.  But I also have some tidbits on other topics as well.  So let's jump right in. Yesterday sucked. Markets fell everywhere from…

Just a few moments ago I caught a very interesting post on Alice Cook's site UK Bubble. The gist of the post was that things are falling apart in Ireland very quickly. Given what we saw with Iceland, I have to ask: is Ireland next? I…

When the Euro was formed, bond traders looked askance at Southern European sovereign debt, which trade at a considerable premium to debt from Germany, France and the Netherlands. In those days, the Southern European countries developed the…

Update: While the Irish were following the Swedish script, it became clear to me shortly after I wrote this that the bank debt guarantees were not a good idea. This post from Willem Buiter explains it best.  Along with American and…

Further evidence that the housing slump has spilled over into the real economy in Ireland comes from Irish unemployment numbers today, up the most in 41 years of data. Ireland looks to be one of the hardest hit countries in Europe. In all…

According to the Irish Independent, the recent fall in Irish bank shares is due to a loss of faith in their bad debt provisions. On Tuesday, Bank of Ireland fell 14%, the largest amount in 20 years.After last week's dive in their share…