sovereign debt crisis

It has been non-stop Cyprus for the past couple of days this weekend. And it has brought back the bad ol' days when every weekend seemed to be another episode in endless crisis. To wit, this episode in Cyprus demonstrates how misplaced the…

This is a thought experiment. I have written in favour of private sector involvement in the past. And I don't think this is a controversial topic. Where I do have problems with the Cypriot bank saver's tax is in terms of property rights and…

The latest news is the bank levy on small deposits could be lifted. As Ryan Avent just tweeted, it was insane in the brain to begin with, wasn't it?

The latest news out of Cyprus is that the Cyrpiot government has delayed the vote on a bank bailout and savers tax by one day to Monday and that it has also extended the bank holiday from just Monday to Tuesday as well. In my view, the news…

This morning we learned that after hours of tense negotiation, Europe has hammered out a 10bn euro "bailout" of Cyprus. I put the term bailout in quotes because the key feature of this deal is the bail-in of Cypriot depositors to the tune…

It is not at all clear where things in Portugal are headed. The economy is in a deep depression. Yet, sovereign bond yields have come down. The Troika is even relaxing Portugal's austerity target, hoping this will drive yields down further.…

Handelsblatt's Italian correspondent Katharina Kort had an exclusive interview with Italian politician Beppe Grillo about his ideas for change in Italian politics. The article is in German. However, I have read it and wanted to present a…

A key issue that will be addressed this week is how will the ECB respond to the electoral outcome of Italy.

Well, well, well, it seems we have a problem in Euroland. The Dutch have now confirmed what I have been saying all along: they have run into so many fiscal problems that they will need to relax their targets instead of doubling down on…

Today I thought I would try a little experiment by beginning to write a daily commentary. I have been thinking about doing this for a while and decided I needed to give it a go here because I don't have an in-depth article I am working on.…