Spain

Well, before we go any further, I would like to make clear that what I am going to talk about in this post is not anything illegal, or even irregular (things like this must be going on in almost all Euro Area countries even as I write).…

By Edward Hugh Look, if there is one simple chart which sums up everything that is wrong with current thinking at the International Monetary Fund, then it is this one. Basically, I spent much of the day yesterday scratching my head,…

Confidence Has Returned To Europe’s Financial Markets, But Lasting Economic Growth May Not Be So Easy To Achieve ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet was in rather optimistic, one might even say jovial, mood at the press conference which…

Well, this is certainly not the first time I have had cause to complain about the quality of the journalism and economic reporting served up over at the Economist, and I’m damn sure it won’t be the last. But this latest example of shoddy (I…

by Edward Hugh According to Ralph Atkins, writing in the Financial Times: "Eurozone mortgage borrowing grew last month at the fastest pace in almost two years in a sign that bank lending across the 16-country region may be flickering…

After a long and rather tense wait, the initial response to the publication of the European bank stress tests was always going to be something of an anti-climax. Indeed the results should hardly have comes as a surprise to anyone It is…

PBS' Paul Solman takes another look at Spain's economic woes, which include a 20 percent unemployment rate. In the Web extra above, he talks to British economist Edward Hugh, a long-time resident of Barcelona, about Span's underground…

From Win Thin, Senior Currency Strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. Spanish media is quoting Finance Minister Salgado as saying all Spanish banks had passed the stress tests.  Spokesperson later tried to walk these comments back,…

Highlights The US dollar is broadly lower against the major foreign currencies.   The combination of Fed’s recognition of downside risks to the US economy and inflation coupled with relatively smooth bond auctions from Spain and…

Pretty hard to argue now the Spanish bank borrowing from the ECB is simply in line with the country’s share of total GDP I would have thought. Also, after having trended upwards ever so slightly for a couple of months, Spain’s industrial…