Italy

Detroit was allowed to declare bankruptcy last year. While economists often focus on the barriers to entry, by removing the stigma from bankruptcy and easing the process, it makes lowers the barriers to exit. This stands in stark contrast…

The aim of the above header is to link two names in people’s minds, both of them Italian: Mario Draghi and Matteo Renzi. Naturally the idea is not original, the FT’s Peter Spiegel recently published an entire blog post (Does Renzi owe his…

Italian stocks and bonds have rallied strongly on ideas that the Italian situation can only get better. It is exactly such time, when so many observers are nearly euphoric, that the smart money may want to take some profits.

By Marc Chandler The Italian 10-year premium over Germany (white line) has generally fallen over the past year as the dollar against the euro (yellow line). Of course, as one would expect the euro is more volatile than the 10-year…

By Marc Chandler Political developments in Italy are happening faster than Prime Minister Letta can maneuver. The economy he is overseeing is the poster child of ECB President Draghi's assessment of a weak, fragile and uneven recovery in…

By Marc Chandler We argue that part of the euro's rise over the past several months reflects a reassessment of Spain's outlook. Many global investors had been under-weight Europe though most of H1 13, favoring the US and Japanese…

By Marc Chandler We argue that part of the euro's rise over the past several months reflects a reassessment of Spain's outlook. Many global investors had been under-weight Europe though most of H1 13, favoring the US and Japanese equities.…

The scenario I laid out for Europe for 2014 in three posts on the global economy last week is one of muddling through. However, whereas in the US, there are upside risks, in Europe the risks are mostly to the downside, politically and…

My contention has been that global growth is accelerating. Backing that up, yesterday I looked at four economies where growth has been good. Only in Sweden were we seeing renewed weakness. Today, I want to look at four economies where…

European banks continue to be engaged in deleveraging. It is partly driven by new capital requirements and partly by preparing for the next year's ECB's asset quality review and stress test. The deleveraging process includes reducing…