This is what it looks like when bond markets run the world
This is what it’s like when a country loses control of its own affairs and has to dance to the tune of the bond market. Today, March 3, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced another $6.6 billion in budget cuts. The new round of reductions is meant, first,...The Greek debt (and euro) crisis will drag on and on
Calendars here. Get your calendars here. Can’t follow the Greek debt crisis without a calendar! Have to have one. This crisis will either blow over in the next two months or so or run until the end of 2010 and threaten to take down Greek and German banks (German banks...Europe's politicians fiddle while the Euro burns
So much for the Euro rally. After rallying against the U.S. dollar on February 16, today (February 18) the Euro is back to its old ways. As of noon in London the dollar had gained 0.4% against the Euro, sending that currency to its lowest level since May 2009....Euro rally a one day wonder? (Maybe three?)
Today’s rally in oil and other commodities that pushed the entire stock market higher was built on a weak dollar and a stronger Euro. Right now this looks like just a euro bounce. A one (or at most a few days) wonder. The Euro is still well below its 200-day moving...The bet is that the Euro is headed even lower
Nobody is taking off their bets against the Euro quite yet. Short positions against the Euro on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which had set a record in January, set a new record in the three weeks that ended on February 9. And judging from the continued pressure on...Insure your neighbor's house and then burn it down–derivatives played a role in creating the Greek crisis
Credit default swaps are not insurance. The most common way to describe these derivatives is to say that they’re a way to insure bonds and other financial instruments against default. I’ve used that explanation myself over and over again. But as James Rickards...Euro rumors get less concrete
Reuters is now carrying a story saying that German government sources are saying that reports about a decision on aid for Greece are “unfounded.” I’d like to note that this story and stories from an hour ago, which reported a decision in principle by European...Euro rumors get more concrete
European news outlets are reporting that a “senior source” in the German coalition government has said that European governments have decided in principle to help Greece. Financial Times Deutschland is reporting that the German government is preparing a plan to help...Just a euro bounce on rumors?
Why are European (and global) stock markets and the euro rallying today on vague rumors that there’s a plan to bailout Greece when yesterday similarly vague official statements couldn’t stem the tide? Could it be because today the markets believe what they discounted...Reassuring talk isn't ending the euro crisis
Talk is cheap. And not terribly effective, even when it’s coming out of the mouths of Europe’s financial leaders, in ending a financial crisis like the one that continues to engulf Europe this morning (February 8). The current phase of the crisis started in Greece,...No surprise, the dollar lost market share to the euro in the last decade–but not as much as you might think
The U.S. dollar earned about a C+ in the decade from 1999 to 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The dollar’s share of allocated global reserves had declined to 62% by the end of September 2009, according to the IMF. That was down from 71% at the...Greece is the word in today's selling
This shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but apparently enough investors were still not expecting it so that Standard & Poor’s downgrade of its credit rating on Greece has pushed down global stock markets. Today, December 17, S&P cut Greece’s credit rating one...A rising dollar stalls all boats (so far)
The rising dollar (and the falling euro and yen) has been enough to stall the emerging economy stock markets that have outperformed the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index since this huge rally began on March 9. The “stall” is just that. Emerging economy stock...The euro crisis just keeps getting worse
In the global ranking for economic acronyms countries want to be a BRIC. The group of Brazil, Russia, India, and China is seen as the world’s most vibrant economies and engines of global growth. And countries don’t want to be one of the PIIGS. The group of Portugal,...Banks still aren't lending in Europe. So don't look for a quick recovery in those economies
Bank lending fell in the euro economies in September. The year-to-year decline was just an annual rate of 0.3%. But that’s the first year-to-year decline since the European Union stated to compile these figures in 1992. (The euro itself dates back to 1999.) The...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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