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Recent stories for "Bailout"
Mr Market, EMU scenarios and credit status
A lot of scenarios have circulated ever since the Greek debt crisis escalated and we got contagion into the Mediterranean periphery. And all these elements were related to bailouts, fiscal consequences of bailouts on core European countries (eg possible eurobonds etc), too big to bail (Spain/Italy) and rescue funds, whether or not ...
US housing market moves in mysterious ways
This week we were surprised by two stories on the US housing market and more specifically on one of its less appealing features : home foreclosures. A first story line focused on the amount of legal mistakes made by banks during foreclosure processing. This became known as the robo-signing scandal, or the practice of a bank ...
More disclosure on half a trillion USD
"Half a trillion USD and you don't know ?" This extract comes from a congress hearing in 2009 (cfr infra youtube link) when Ben Bernanke was questioned about the constitutional functioning of the FED and the emergency operations occurring in 2008. It was revealed back then that the FED during Q4 2008 made some 538 bio USD - and ...
Meanwhile in Frankfurt and Madrid...
...we have some busy days ahead for the financial sector. Today, bondholders of Greek sovereign paper are to meet at Deutsche Bank's headquarters in Frankfurt to discuss the "voluntary" debt swap deal arranged on 26/10. The Institute of International Finance (representing 450 financial firms and chaired by DB CEO Ackerman) has ...
Not quite there yet
The summit which was announced as the most important one of the past months (years) in the existence of the single currency, has been wrapped more quickly than expected. It doesn't however mean that the consensus on a solution has been achieved. Again, come and see next episode of...So all eyes on Wednesday to face the final ...
Towards a sovereign CoCo ?
Cocos are contingent convertible bonds and are a hot issue of debate in the current quest for banking crisis solutions, ie, bail-in instead of bail-out. It briefly implies that these bonds are automatically converted from debt to equity at a fraction of their original price - haircut - once a pre-specified threshold of bank's ...
Si nécessaire, Robin Hood, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera
A lot of news coverage today on the big press conference yesterday by tandem Merkel-Sarkozy. Was it shocking or revolutionary or both ? Not really, but my personal disappointment goes partly towards what has been said (or rather not) and partly to how politicians have reacted so far (and reacted for the wrong reasons or mis-aimed ...
"Out of Order"
Karlruhe (Baden Wurtenberg) is since 1950/51 the German residence of Law. Translated, "Karlsruhe" also means "machine ganz kaput, no longer of any use, out of order". And it's these days all about "out of order" in another interpretation being "acting beyond one's legal capacity". Yesterday, the hearings before the German ...
Sympathy with Greece is mostly misplaced
My Sunday readings included i.a. The New York Times, John Mauldin, The Daily Mail, and a lot of statistics by Eurostat, IMF and OECD. All the facts and hard data on Greece point to a country where citizens cheat their government, and where the government has been cheating Europe. John Mauldin , the ...
Greece : Who will pay the Ferry-man ?
The next article appeared in De Standaard and expresses the views of Geert Noels & Econopolis on the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis : De banken: risktakers moeten mee betalen. 'Tot voor zes maanden was de aanpak van het Grieks probleem: steeds meer geld op tafel leggen. Maar langzaam maar zeker evolueert het in een andere ...
Caligula
The following story is not new and only a few blogs considered it to be important enough to focus on. It nevertheless merits attention because it blows your mind in various ways. And I needed some time to digest the story before commenting it, simply because it is so unreal.Last Thursday, Bloomberg reported on the special open ...
Chickens coming home to roost
"Don't fight the FED, they always come up with a perfect put option". So far so good when it comes to equities and some other assets. One exception : Mr Bond doesn't seem to go along anymore.
The European Fannie and Freddie are slowly rising
From what I read, Merkel might get at least half of what she wanted: a participation of private investors (bond holders) in case of a bailout... The other half seems that more money will have to be put on the table. From the press release: Rules will be adapted to provide for a case by case participation of ...
Belgium seen as more risky than Brazil now
Tensions are back again. While Greek spreads are reaching pre-bailout highs, also other euro countries are experiencing rising spreads on their bonds and CDS-premiums.Banking problems are resurfacing (Ireland with Anglo Irish and Greece with NBG), and as a result, the focus is on the risk of souvereign problems. The Irish debt is ...
A 1000 Bn USD waste of money for Greece
Greek interest rate spreads are back at crisis levels of just before the EMU bailout fund. After 1000 Bn USD bailout effort, we are back at square 1. The Greek crisis has not been ended because of several reasons: Greece has received credits to (re)finance its (growing) debt, but the debt servicing ...
Germany is footing the EU-bills
The Greek Prime Minister Papandreou asks for more EU-support , economic stimuli to lift the Greek economy. The original interview with Papandreou can be found here (in the Spanish newspaper El Pais ). A quick look at the EU-budget shows that Greece already receives most from the EU-budget, and Germany ...
Griekse bailout: welk alternatief ? - Update Terzake
Deze avond moet ik op Ter Zake komen uitleggen of ik de bailout van Griekenland nog steeds een slecht idee vind...Wel vorige week spraken we nog over 35 miljard, nu al over 110 miljard euro. Ik vind het dus nog 3 keer meer een slecht idee...
Savings Greece, or saving the banks ?
The decision to bailout Greece has been taken. 110 Bn euros will be spent to (re)finance Greek debt. It will be the biggest bailout operation in Europe, and apparently the biggest the IMF has ever undertaken.Given this size, you would expect more explanation on the strategy to help Greece in the long run. Without an economic ...















