sovereign debt crisis

In an entirely fraudulent paper chase, the banks that borrowed LTRO money put some of it to work in sovereign carry trades. The banks have borrowed at 0.25% from the ECB and are buying sovereign bonds with much higher yields. Intesa…

Spain is on a bad course, with recognised debt about to surge rapidly, while investor confidence in the current administration is slipping. Time for another “game changer” I think, since otherwise this car is about to crash.

Uncertainty over the participation in the Greek bond swap is a major source of anxiety today. Rumors circulated earlier that the PSI "invitation" would be extended by a week due to low participation have been officially denied, but rumors…

The US dollar is broadly higher against most of the major and emerging market currencies amid concern that the Greek PSI will not see sufficient participation to avoid the triggering of the collective action clauses or worse. At the same…

Will Germany lose its best friend in the Upright Brigade? And if so, will this encourage Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain etc. to question Germany-encouraged austerity policies? Spain’s prime minister has already said that the…

This is a silver level post. Spain is now fessing up that its going to miss 2012 targets as well as its 2011 deficit targets. For Credit Writedowns readers, this should come as no shock because I predicted this months ago. Here's the…

The devolution in Spain is particularly troubling. The new fiscal compact had just been signed last week, which includes somewhat more rigorous fiscal rule and enforcement, when Spain's PM Rajoy revealed that this year's deficit would come…

The US dollar is posting modest gains against most of the major and emerging market currencies to start what is likely to be among the most important weeks here in the first quarter, with numerous central banks meeting, first tier economic…

This was the question put to the ECB's Klaus Masuch by one persistent Irish journalist. The answer from Masuch was a complete dodge, a non-answer, because everyone knows that the Irish government has heaped what rightfully should be…

In this piece Variant Perception looks at the mechanics of a currency breakup and how it would happen. This piece is longer than most of their pieces and is a slightly more wonkish piece than usual, but the first two pages provide a summary…