A disagreement over the terms of a deal to provide a bailout extension for Greece, has set the stage for a final clash between the Eurogroup and members of the Greek ruling party, Syriza. Although the agreement was approved on Tuesday when a list of reforms were submitted by Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to... Read More

It’s not easy to negotiate with a gun to your head. Nevertheless, that’s the situation Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis found himself in on Friday preceding a crucial meeting with the Eurogroup. According to one report, the objective of the last-ditch confab “was to prepare a consensus text that would be the basis for the... Read More

Monday is a crucial deadline in Greece’s struggle against Brussels-imposed austerity. Eurozone finance ministers are set to meet in the morning to decide whether Greece has made sufficient progress on previous agreements to justify further support. The new leftist government of Greece, Syzira, has rejected provisions in the so-called bailout, saying that the loans have... Read More

It was supposed to be a bailout. It turned out to be a death sentence. Given the checkered and unremarkable history of the Brussels bureaucrats, is anyone really surprised? Yes, an agreement was reached between Cypriot government officials and the so-called troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) in... Read More

Italy's elections could signal the end of the euro or they could mean nothing at all. It's impossible to know just yet. But one thing is certain, Italians have "had it up to here" with austerity. Nearly 60 percent of the electorate voted for candidates who oppose the policy and who want a change of... Read More

The Greek electorate has changed captains on the Titanic, but the ship is still sinking. So what difference did the elections make?


 None. Unemployment is still rising, the deficits continue to widen, and the economy is in tatters. Everything is fundamentally the same as before, with one exception, the victor (New Democracy's Antonis Samaras) remains... Read More

Regard the Greek political landscape and how dramatically it has changed from last November. On November 2, 2011, Greek prime minister George Papandreou flew to Cannes before a G20 meeting and received one of the most humiliating rebuffs in European history since Pope Gregory VII left Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV shivering in the snow.... Read More

Growing troubles in the eurozone, a slowdown in China and a jobs report that was weaker than the most-pessimistic forecast, sent stocks plunging on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 275 points on the day while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ followed the DJIA into the red. All the gains of 2012 have... Read More

Yields on 10-year Treasuries plunged to a record-low 1.56 percent on Thursday morning as panicky investors stormed out of European financial assets into German and U.S. government bonds. Deteriorating credit conditions, a flurry of ratings downgrades, and bank runs in Spain and Greece have triggered a flight-to-safety which has pushed the benchmark 10-year below its... Read More

The endgame for Greece is now in sight. Attempts to form a unity government have failed and public opposition to austerity is growing. The uncertain political situation has triggered a bank run which drained nearly $900 million in deposits from Greek banks on Monday alone. Panicky Greeks are moving their money out of the country... Read More

Watch Europe tip left and right as voters rise in fury against the austerity menu that’s been bringing them to utter ruin. In Holland, the right-wing Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders brought down the governing coalition on Monday bellowing his defiance for the "Diktats from Brussels", and asserting that "We must be master of our... Read More

The eurozone is slipping into a recession that could have been avoided. Had policymakers provided fiscal support for stricken countries in the South and guarantees on their government bonds, (as the USG does for US Treasuries) then their economies could have continued to grow while the necessary reforms were put in place. But the Troika... Read More

Money might "make the world go 'round", but it's not going to stop the eurozone from breaking apart. That's the lesson investors learned on Tuesday when global stock markets plunged on news that yields on Spanish and Italian debt had again entered the red zone. Stocks rebounded on Wednesday, but to little effect, after all,... Read More

ECB president Mario Draghi's new lending facility--the Long-Term Refinancing Operation--has helped to pull the financial system back from the brink of another Lehman-type catastrophe, but it doesn't address the fundamental problems that created the crisis. (Account imbalances, capital flows) What the LTRO does is allow EU banks to exchange dodgy collateral for "limitless" 3-year loans... Read More

While EU policymakers make arrangements for their 14th summit in the last two years, Europe's flagging economy continues to slip deeper into recession. On Monday, the Eurozone's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) reported that production and new orders had declined for a 5th straight month. According to a survey of economists by Reuters, "The euro... Read More

For the second time in three years, the banking system has collapsed, which means that the banks are no longer able to fund themselves through the normal means, the wholesale markets. This same thing happened in July 2007 when two Bear Stearns hedge funds defaulted and trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities--which US banks had... Read More

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi is either a liar or a fool. Either way, he should be canned immediately before he dumps more money into an EU banking system sinkhole. What's all the fuss about? Here's a clip from Bloomberg that explains what's going on: Notice how the Long-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) was supposed... Read More

Imagine if your banker offered to lend you a $150,000 to make up for the money that you'd lost on your home since the housing bubble burst in 2006. And, let's say, he agreed to lend you this money for 3 years at rock-bottom rates of 1 percent provided that you post the contents of... Read More

Mario Draghi has settled on a plan to pull the EU banking system back from the brink and hammer down sovereign bond yields at the same time. The European Central Bank chief has announced that he will launch an emergency liquidity assistance program on December 21, that will provide "limitless" loans to struggling banks at... Read More

The battered euro tumbled to an 11 month low on Wednesday while "safe haven" 10-year US Treasuries rallied. (1.93 percent) The flight from all-things-Europe continued with gusto after German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected a recommendation that the eurozone bailout fund (EFSF) be increased to deal plunging bond yields in Italy and Spain which are increasing... Read More

When the book is finally closed on this week's EU summit, it'll be interesting to see what people remember the most. Will it be the proposed changes to the Lisbon Treaty, the new steps towards fiscal integration or the disgraceful behavior of David Cameron? My money's on Cameron. The UK's brash Prime Minister did his... Read More

Angela Merkel has a cure for the eurozone's pesky debt crisis. Hair shirts and stiffer penalties. Aside from that, the German Chancellor has very little to offer by way of a remedy. In fact--what was so surprising about Monday's widely-anticipated press conference with Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy--was the absence of any new ideas... Read More