Post Tagged with: "austerity"
The Elephant in the Room Is Spain, Not Italy
The decision for Europe’s bosses is this: they must ultimately confront the consequences of their policy choices. They can destroy the eurozone by continuing with the same failed mix of policies or by salvaging it by adding what has been missing from the outset: a mechanism for shifting surpluses to the deficit regions in the form of productive investments (as opposed to handouts or loans)
Greek protests turn very anti-Germany
This is how it’s going down in Greece right now. The sentiment is very Anti-German on the eve of the austerity/bailout decision. The debt haircut and writedowns coming of upwards of 50% is a default in everything but name. Technical default is a real possibility as well
[Premium] Ireland’s Private Debt Problem
You saw the chart about two weeks ago on Developed economies’ debt levels by sector. Different economies have different debt problems. A few like Greece have public sector debt woes. And this is the sort of problem that forces a default only when the country is a currency user (and not a monopoly issuer of currency) as Japan has demonstrated. Mostly, however, the problem is in the private sector, where all of the indebted parties are currency users
The Problem with Success
Cash accounts for almost 6% of all corporate assets and the highest in sixty years. This increase is a result of a number of factors. Record profits give businesses the wherewithal. But corporations are not rewarded for the cash holdings. Moreover, the cash is held in such instruments as money market funds, commercial paper and bank deposits
Auerback: Austerity during recession is equivalent to medieval bloodletting
Here’s a good video performance by Marshall Auerback on BNN’s Business Day program. Marshall thinks the Greek default deal is actually a relatively good one. But sees a Portuguese default after the Greek default as a real possibility and envisions a scenario in which Portugal and Spain look to extract similar terms. Moreover, the quid pro quo for Greece is austerity – and that makes getting debt loads down harder when implemented during a downturn
A Month In Spain That Didn’t Shake The World
Spain’s economic problems are very grave. The country is facing a decade long depression, and if enough young qualified people leave during this period then the country could enter a negative dynamic from which it will never properly recover. At the outset (2007) I and others argued for a 20% internal devaluation to shift resources over to the export sector. This did not happen, and virtually no one is interested in the idea. The main priorities are still reducing the deficit, and restructuring the financial sector without injecting any significant quantity of public money. Both these policies are contractionary in their impact. In addition the proposed labour market reform is timid, and won’t act quickly enough to stop the rot on the growth front
Spanish government doubts it can achieve deficit target
I have been saying for a few months now that all of the periphery would miss their targets as depression took hold. Belgian newspaper De Standaard reports that the new Spanish government is fearful. My translation from Dutch below
Münchau: We are fighting the wrong crisis
To me this situation looks pretty hopeless frankly. Policy makers in Europe just don’t get it. The best we are going to get is austerity and partial monetisation by the ECB until the union breaks or sovereign debtors default and banks are recapped. The question is why are they leading us down the abyss
The ECB is Engaging in Massive QE
Despite the ongoing hawkish rhetoric from the ECB, there are signs that they are getting it: The LTRO can’t work, as you’re essentially just swapping one liability for another one (albeit more long term in duration, therefore making it better for the banks). But note the way the ECB balance sheet is expanding: The consolidated assets of the European system of Central Banks is now 4.4 billion euros or $5.7 billion. In effect, the consolidated ESCB balance sheet is almost two times that of the Fed and its increase over the last 6 months is almost equal to the entire increase in the Fed’s balance sheet over the last several years. Bottom line: the system of European Central Banks (ESCB) has been engaged in massive QE and much more is in the pipeline. With such massive injections of “liquidity” into the European banks, a European Lehman type failure with Lehman’s systemic consequences becomes ever less likely
EU leaders are already backtracking on the agreement of 5 weeks ago
The big news out of Europe on Friday was not S&P’s downgrade of 9 countries, France included. The ratings agency told us weeks ago that it might do this. No, much more important was the ECB’s saying in the bluntest possible terms that the EU leaders are backtracking on the fiscal compact agreed just 5 weeks ago by 26 of the 27 countries
Protest and Nationalism in Eastern Europe
Since the possibility of further social tensions leading to nationalism is something on my radar screen, I thought I would post these videos from Euronews. In a good economy, these issues are nothing to get concerned about. But in a bad economy, especially one wracked by austerity and unemployment, tensions will have political consequences
Thoughts Ahead of Spanish and Italian Bond Auctions
Spain and Italy begin this year’s funding operations with bond auctions tomorrow and Friday. Although the euro is bouncing along its recent trough against not only the dollar, but against many of the other major currencies as well, there has been a modest improvement in some of the measures the market has focused on as metric of stress. Of course there are other signs that still show a high level of paralysis, including the fact that overnight deposits at the ECB continue to set record levels and are approaching 500 bln euros