Category: Global Debt Crisis
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Sovereign Debt, The Biggest Bubble of Them All / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
This week we turn from the crisis brewing in the US to the one that is coming to a slow boil in Europe. We visit our old friends Greece and Ireland and ponder how this will end. It is all well and good to kick the can down the road, but what happens when you come to the end of the road? The European answer seems to be to haul in the heavy equipment and extend the road.
I am asked all the time what my biggest worry is, and I quickly answer, the European Sovereign Debt Crisis. Of course, then we have to think about the Japanese Sovereign Debt Crisis, followed by the one in the US; but today we will focus on Europe. The biggest bubble in history is the bubble of government debt. It is a bubble in a world full of pins. It will take a great deal of luck and crisis management to keep it afloat, without wreaking havoc on the financial system and markets of the world.
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Sunday, May 15, 2011
Goldman Sachs Using Currency Swaps to Hide Greek Debt Iceberg / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
By now, most realize that Greece used currency swaps with Goldman to hide debt. However, Bloomberg has some new details about those transaction in its report Greece Had 13 Currency Swaps With Goldman, Eurostat Says
Monday, April 18, 2011
Next Phase of Global Sovereign Debt Crisis, Greek Government in Denial / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
A Greek newspaper reported that Greece is in talks with the IMF regarding debt restructuring. However, Greek Finance Minister issued this denial "Restructuring is not an issue we’re discussing".
Last week, the media went gaga over a no-news announcement from German officials that restructuring was on the table. It should not have caused a stir because anyone watching the market knows perfectly well a restructuring is coming. Denials from Greece cannot stop it.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Investing in Irish Bonds - Heads You Win, Tails You Probably Win Also / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Rory_Gillen
The Irish government finally overcapitalises the Irish banks and then Portugal gets a bail out. In response, investors buy Irish bonds aggressively signalling, in my view, the end of the banking crisis in Ireland and the possibility that the periphery Euro-zone crisis ended with Portugal. A strong Euro is consistent with this reading. That being the case, there is an opportunity for all Irish savers and investors, and particularly pension investors, to earn much higher returns from Irish government bonds than can be earned from either bank deposits or An Post’s National Solidarity Bond.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Is Compounding Debt Mankind’s Kryptonite? / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Submissions
SilverDoctors writes: Throughout history, mankind has struggled to end the boom/bust economic cycle, and usher in a new age of economic prosperity. The middle ages saw monarchy/ feudal/ serf systems. Marx and Lenin believed economic prosperity could be achieved through socialism or communism- complete sharing of economic wealth and resources. The modern Western world-influenced by the likes of Adam Smith, Keynes, and Friedman, has tried to achieve this through capitalism- the private ownership of goods with the incentive for personal profit. The Chinese have developed a modern hybrid of capitalism and communism. Hard money advocates believe fiat currency is the issue, and a return to sound money such as gold and silver will finally usher in the era of economic prosperity.
Monday, April 04, 2011
Will Portugal Send European Debt Crisis Out of Control? / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Pravda
Most Americans have no idea just how bad the financial problems over in Europe are right now. The truth is that the entire European financial system is teetering on the brink of disaster. Ireland and Greece have already received bailouts and Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and Belgium are all drowning in an ocean of unsustainable debt. Sovereign credit ratings all over Europe have being slashed in recent months. For example, a while back Moody's Investors Service cut Ireland's bond rating by five levels. Up until now Europe has weathered all of this financial instability fairly well, but now huge new financial problems in Portugal threaten to send the European debt crisis spinning out of control.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Europe Whispers “Crisis” While the Market Continues Screaming / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Jason_Kaspar
Last year the Europe Union (and the euro) teetered on the verge of collapse when the Greek financial crisis strained the viability of the EU construct. This year, as other EU countries domino in similar fashion, no one seems to care – certainly not the markets. Portugal’s government collapsed last Friday, and Standard and Poor has downgraded Portugal twice in the last week from A- to BBB-. S&P then proceeded to cut Greece’s rating further from BB+ to BB-. Yet, defying all reason, the markets have gone up.
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Friday, March 25, 2011
The Burden of Portugal is Not Debt but Education? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Justin_John
Portugal is the poorest country in Western Europe. It is also the least educated, and that has emerged as a painful liability in its gathering economic crisis. Wednesday night, the economic crisis became a political crisis as Portugal’s parliament rejected Prime Minister José Sócrates’s plan for spending cuts and tax increases. Mr. Sócrates handed in his resignation even though he will hang on as a caretaker until a new government is formed.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
E.U. Politicians Seek to Unload PIIGS Bonds / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Claus_Vogt
Since last Friday all eyes have been geared toward the catastrophe in Japan. That’s indeed understandable. However, there has been another important development with far-reaching implications that is worth discussing today …
While the media was totally focused on the Japanese disaster, German Chancellor Merkel and her European brethren insidiously decided to make a major change within the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the EU’s euro rescue fund …
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Friday, March 11, 2011
ECB Stuck in Sovereign Debt Garbage, Germany Sets High Price for Bailout Changes on Greence and Ireland / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
Leaders of 17 eurozone countries meet on Friday in Brussels to discuss the sovereign debt crisis and the stabilization pact, but don't expect much of anything to come from it. Instead, expect to see a lot of bickering interspersed with agreements to agree on non-critical issues.
Monday, February 28, 2011
European Sovereign Debt Crisis Wake Up Call for US? / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: ECR_Research
Andy Langenkamp writes: The American fiscal condition faces a perfect storm. The outlook for the medium term has deteriorated markedly. Some important causes are the Big Recession and the extension of the Bush tax cuts. Nor are the projections cheerful in the long term. In the coming period these issues will come to a head.
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Sunday, February 27, 2011
Ireland Crippled by Debt Votes for More of the Same / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
When Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, 'tis like the morn in Spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Future Public Debt Trajectory, Projections and Drastic Measures / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
A Bit of Background
Drastic Measures
The Future Public Debt Trajectory
Debt Projections
This week I find myself in Bangkok, and I must admit to enjoying the experience a great deal, so much so that I am going to preview a portion of my coming book, Endgame, so that I can go back out and play tourist. Next week I get back to my more or less regular schedule, but I think you will enjoy this first portion of chapter six, where we look at an important paper from the Bank of International Settlements on “The Future of Public Debt.” It is not a pretty one. We are watching one of the last great bubbles begin to deflate – the bubble of government and government debt – all over the developed world. This is a serious weight that will be a drag on our growth, and it is interesting to contemplate as I sit in Bangkok, a city that is vibrant and teeming with opportunity.
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Monday, January 24, 2011
The Great Global Debt Shift / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: John_Browne
If one were asked to describe the major global economic changes that have unfolded since the financial crisis began, a good starting place would be the massive shift of debt from the private to the public sector. Attempting to arrest a deepening crisis, governments all around the world have bailed out businesses and companies by transferring bad debts to the public books. Although these moves have provided some current stability (after all, governments are much less likely to default), the long-term consequences may be dire.
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Friday, January 21, 2011
Irish Government Collapses, Election March 11; How To Negotiate Debt Bond Market Haircuts / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
In a fitting tribute to a disgraceful performance by Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen in which Cowen crammed losses of Irish banks down the throats of taxpayers, his government has at long last collapsed. Six cabinet members (40%) resigned representing justice, health, trade and enterprise, defense and transport. Earlier in the week his foreign minister resigned making the total six.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Financial Chaos and Debt Default in the European Union / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Bob_Chapman
Between now and the end of the year, most likely in the fall, we’ll see major financial and economic problems in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Italy. Those events will sorely test Germany, France, Holland and Austria.
Over and over we hear announcements from Brazil of trade wars. Brazil is deliberately reining in their currency, the real, due to its strength. They have imposed reserve requirements on domestic banks’ foreign exchange positions. These are taxes on investments and de facto currency controls. Such actions are very good moves that cause indirect higher gold prices.
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Thursday, January 20, 2011
Systemic Global Economic Crisis At the Crossroads of Three Roads of Global Chaos / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Global_Research
This GEAB issue marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin. In January 2006, on the occasion of the first issue, the LEAP/E2020 team indicated that a period of four to seven years was opening up which would be characterized by the “Fall of the Dollar Wall”, an event similar to the fall of the Berlin Wall which resulted, in the following years, in the collapse of the communist bloc then that of the USSR. Today, in this GEAB issue, which presents our thirty-two anticipations for 2011, we believe that the coming year will be a pivotal year in the roll out of this process between 2010 and 2013. It will be, in any case, a ruthless year because it will mark the entry into the terminal phase of the world before the crisis (1).
Monday, January 17, 2011
Financial Meltdown 2011 Fast Approaching / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Midas_Letter
Despite the best efforts by the American mainstream financial media, the eager PR division of the United States Dollar Ponzi Scheme, to paint the rosiest of rosy pictures for blindly optimistic readers, the stubborn image of a debt-swollen jobless behemoth economy slowly toppling persists. No matter how much U.S. departmental data is primped, polished, and primed, no amount of lipstick is going to transform this fat pig into a princess.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
European Debt Crisis Thinking the Unthinkable, The Threat of the Irish / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
The Fed Adds a Third Mandate
A Rational Voice in Dallas
Thinking the Unthinkable
The Threat of the Irish
Has China Found a Miracle Business Cycle?
Last week, in the first part of my annual forecast, I suggested that 2011 would be better than Muddle Through, with GDP growth in the US north of 2.5%. World GDP growth should be even better. This week we look at what I see as the real downside risks to that prediction. Oddly enough, the risks are not in the US but on the other side of both our oceans, in Europe and China. Plus, we will visit a few other items, assuming we have space (Bernanke's recent speech just screams for some comments).
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Friday, January 14, 2011
Europe's Tragic Debt Crisis / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: David_Howden
At the root of the current crisis in Europe are the actions of the European Central Bank. As Philipp Bagus explains in his new book, The Tragedy of the Euro, only a realization of the true costs the euro has imposed on the continent in the past can shed light on the path to future recovery.
European member states, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have pledged upward of €200 billion in bailout funds to prevent the turmoil from spreading. This is a large funding drain on an already-dangerous EU fiscal situation.
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