local government

I think it goes without saying that the problems for Spanish and Italian regional governments are due to the austerity-induced double dip recession those economies are suffering. The real insight here is that this municipal - double dip…

I just wrote a post for Credit Writedowns Pro on the regional government problems in Spain. The following chart from El Pais is useful in that context.

Today, Spanish newspapers confirmed that a number of regional governments on the verge of bankruptcy must follow Spanish banks in requesting aid from the central government. However, with Spanish central government itself facing record euro…

Daily commentary Just a quick word here on three interlocking stories involving Spain and Germany that have come up via the US and European press. Right now, Spain is at the center of the European sovereign debt crisis. The spread…

Right now the spread between Bunds and the Spanish ten-year is 609 basis points. The catalyst for the increase in Spanish spreads may be the news that the indebted Spanish regional government in Valencia is on the verge of seeking a bailout…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a brilliant political tactician. After the latest EU Summit, it seemed she had capitulated after being rounded on by France's Hollande in an effort by Italy's Monti and Spain's Rajoy to prevent the market…

The fact that Spanish bank shares have rallied today (3.1% at pixel time) and have easily outperformed the market (IBEX up 0.3%) following Moody's downgrade of 16 Spanish banks should be understood as a bit of a fluke. Some observers will…

I have a number of links coming up in today's daily commentary. The likely topic will be US interest rates. But there is a second topic I wanted to riff on so I am posting here separately about fiscal woes in Spain and the Netherlands.

This is a thematic post, I am also putting outside the paywall because there is a lot of chatter today about Spain needing to tap EU bailout funds this year. The messaging in the analyst community follows the thematic prediction I made in…

The LTROs may have helped ease this year's roll-over risk (Spain has met almost 50% of this year's refinancing needs). But they have not substantially altered the market's views of the risks of an eventual restructuring.