sovereign debt crisis

A U.S. downgrade is, in itself, almost meaningless. A nation that issues debt denominated solely in its own currency and which is in full control of its monetary policy, cannot default unwillingly. Nations default because they run out of…

With the US downgrade now out of the way, we think market attention will swing back to other Developed Markets countries that are facing downward pressure on ratings too. Here is a summary of our most recent ratings outlooks for Developed…

Sentiment remains poor after S&P downgrade; equities; safe haven trades to remain in vogue. Euro zone to remain under pressure despite ECB purchases of Italian and Spanish bonds. G7, G20, EU, and ECB weekend meetings have done little…

This statement was issued to demonstrate coordinated global support in view of recent market turmoil.

The European Central Bank is now deciding how much liquidity to provide because it has received a quid pro quo from Italy that some analysts knew were necessary before the ECB would provide any liquidity. We will see soon whether this will…

Postmortems of last month’s European Union summit meeting have now turned to why the Greek debt rescue failed to restore investor confidence in the country’s finances. Many reasons are advanced: the failure to communicate clearly; the…

The point is that this is a rolling crisis where investors have realised that the sovereign debt profiles right across Euroland have problems. And because there is no lender of last resort, the weakest debtors get plucked off one by one…

This is a classic liquidity crisis. Bond markets in Europe are selling off. Commercial paper markets in the US are seizing up. Retail investors in Asia are already running for safety in overnight trading. What we are experiencing is a…

Here’s my take on the wideners.

Elga Bartsch, a ECB shadow council member and Chief European Economist at Morgan Stanley, talked to Bloomberg about the sovereign debt crisis today. She said that the ECB would be hard-pressed to do a 180 on its hawkish tightening position…