Monthly Archives: November 2011

The end (of the crisis) is nigh! – On treaty change and Lenders of Last Resort

Another week and another bout of hysteria, as banks warn about the risk of a Euro-breakup due to the upcoming banking crisis. May be that’s to over do it, but clearly it increases the ever unquantifiable risk of that happening. … Continue reading

Posted in Current Events, ECB | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Euro-Update(29): November 2011 Roundup

November has been a very busy month. In this post I propose to go through the political and economic news over the last 23 days. The figure below superimposes the relevant economic and political events on the movements of the … Continue reading

Posted in Euro-zone Update, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

ECB Monetary Policy Tools – A brief review

Central Banks (CBs) have at their disposal an large range of weaponry they can use to (try to) tame the economy. Given the geographical focus of this blog I will consider only the European Central Bank (ECB) and the monetary … Continue reading

Posted in Aides Memoire, ECB | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Could Bini Smaghi’s resignation be a condition for French support of Italian Bailout?

After much discussion on the sidelines of the Euro-zone sovereign debt crisis, the Italian member of the ECB’s Executive Board, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi has resigned his position, finally opening the way for another French executive. This has been a long … Continue reading

Posted in ECB, European Interdependences, Sovereign debt Crisis, Weekly Bond Yield developments in the Euro Area | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Barroso’s Speech: European Orthodoxy, Legislative Proposals and Punching the Chinese

Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, gave a speech to the Konrad Adenhaur Foundation (video extracts/full transcript), on the state of the EU. I am not in the habit of following every speech made by EU leaders. There … Continue reading

Posted in Economic Concepts, European Integration, Sovereign debt Crisis, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Head count: Victims of the Sovereign Debt Crisis

The existing casualties: Cowen from Ireland, on February 1, 2011 Sócrates from Portugal on March 23, 2011 Kiviniemi from Finland on April 17, 2011 Radičová of Slovakia on October 11 and 12, 2011 Papandreou from Greece on November 6, 2011 Berlusconi … Continue reading

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Greece outside the Euro-zone

  “Les guignols de l’info” is a very successful French show which uses puppets to satirize politicians and celebrities, in the same tone as “Spitting Image” did in the UK back in the 1980s. Here’s their take on what Greece … Continue reading

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Implications of the Greek referendum proposal: Delay, not Default

On Monday, October 31, the Greek Prime Minister announced that it was his intention to lead Greece into holding a referendum, sometime in December 4 or 5, on whether to accept the recent bailout and debt haircut, according to major … Continue reading

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