sovereign debt crisis

I am off again this week and doing short duty on the blog. But I want to say a few words about the ECB and its impending monetisation plans given Mario Draghi's decision to pull out of the Jackson Hole event sponsored by the Kansas City…

Editor's Note: this post has been corrected to reflect a different interpretation of the Goldman analyst's remarks. Ex-ECB economist Huw Pill agrees with many of us that the ECB is unlikely to engage in explicit rate targeting when it…

The big theme in today’s links is the ECB yet again. With the interview with Joerg Asmussen out, backing Mario Draghi’s previous statements, it is now more clear than ever where this is headed in Europe. The lead story here from Ambrose…

A while ago I posted a translation of Joerg Asmussen's Frankfurter Rundschau interview and my interpretation of his commentary. Here is the rest of the translation and some commentary. There are to be bond purchases once more. What makes…

An extremely important interview with ECB board member Joerg Asmussen was carried in the Frankfurter Rundschau recently. Below is a translation with key bits highlighted. Afterward I will interpret his remarks in light of ongoing…

This is just a quick follow-up to my article on ECB sovereign debt yield caps. I don’t think the ECB is about to put ceilings on euro area sovereign debt yields. The speculation generated by the Spiegel article is not warranted in my view.

It looks like the ECB is about to step forward and engage in quantitative easing, if reports from the German media are to be believed. I am sceptical that the ECB will follow through on this given political pressure in the euro zone against…

Some maintain that Italy and Spain risk losing market access for their sovereign bonds despite drops in yields. A recent Vox column by Francesco Giavazzi suggested that Italy could and should avoid a bailout. This column argues that in…

It is clear that lending to Spanish banks is now funded entirely via TARGET2 (borrowing from the rest of the Eurosystem) rather than with deposits. In fact deposits at the Bank of Spain by the Spanish government and Spanish banks (excess…

Quick post here to highlight then continued losses in Spanish property markets and the effect on Spanish banks. House prices in Spain were down 11.2% year-on-year in July. That's the largest fall since March 2011 and it brings all in losses…