sovereign debt crisis

If the sovereign debt crisis spirals out of control, it is not clear who will govern. At a minimum, Germany’s reputation as a foundational support for the European project will be in tatters. Likely, the governing coalition of CDU, CSU and…

Contagion in the sovereign debt crisis has already spread to Spain and Italy. David Blanchflower believes it may spread yet further to France. On Bloomberg, Blanchflower led off saying this would not be surprising, pointing to the dithering…

There seems to be an aggrieved sense on the part of creditor nations that after providing so much helpful funding to undisciplined debtors, the creditors are going to be left with losses. There is, they claim, something terribly unfair…

At the weekend, I saw three articles asking essentially the same question about sovereign debt crisis contagion: why Italy and why not Japan (the US or Germany)? Here's my answer.

Dollar and other safe havens remain firm amid EZ uncertainties; stocks and commodities retreat. The week ahead is likely to be dominated by EZ summit, debates surrounding US budget and earnings. EM investors continue to focus on the…

According to Der Spiegel, Helmut Kohl, the father of a unified Germany and the German politician most responsible for the single currency, is very unhappy with his protégé Angela Merkel. I found this article to be consistent with what I…

8 banks out 90 banks fail: Five in Spain, two from Greece and one from Austria (Spain's CAM, CatalunyaCaixa, Banco Pastor, Unnim & Grupo Caja; Austria's Volksbanken; Greece's Eurobank & ATEBank). One additional bank, Helaba, the…

If economic crises make the short-run pains of reforms easier to bear, then crises could yield considerable long-run benefits. But this column argues that the recent global financial crisis has been wasted thus far. It suggests that it is…

Tom Ferguson gives a comprehensive view of the politicss of the European sovereign debt crisis.

The ECB does have the power to end this. They are not doing so for ideological reasons. Let me suggest two scenarios.