Post Tagged with: "Eastern Europe"
While Rome Burns
The following post is from John Mauldin, who is a Best-Selling author and recognized financial expert. He is also editor of the free Thoughts From the Frontline that goes to over 1 million readers each week. For more information on John or his FREE weekly economic letter go to: http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/learnmore
The Risk in Europe
UBS does not see the need for panic over Eastern Europe
FT Alphaville has a post up indicating that the UBS EMEA economics team is much more sanguine about prospects in Eastern Europe than many market participants. The most important part of the UBS contents reads as follows: We don’t normally respond directly to articles in the financial press, but quite a number of clients have
Peer Steinbrueck says Germany might bail out the Austrians
This video does not mention Austria by name, focusing instead on Ireland, Spain and Greece, but Austria is more of the problem for the Germans as they are leveraged to Eastern Europe. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck became the first senior policy maker to broach the topic this week, saying some of the 16 euro
Switzerland threatened with bankruptcy
In an interview with Swiss daily Tagesanzeiger, a well-known economist has warned that Switzerland risks bankruptcy, if the recent market turmoil centering on Eastern Europe is not contained quickly. At issue are loans made in Swiss Francs to Eastern European debtors. With many countries in the region falling into depression, currencies and asset prices are plunging. Therefore, debtors domiciled in Eastern Europe are increasingly expected to have difficulty with mounting foreign debt loads — and that spells trouble for Switzerland
Bloomberg talks about the meltdown in Eastern Europe
The video below gives an excellent view into the issues affecting European banking. Tom Keene, who is Bloomberg Radio’s editor-at-large, sees the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the ultimate solution to the problems in Eastern Europe. As the IMF is funded in large part by richer nations, any bailout will ultimately be financed by those
Why are the Swiss now issuing debt in U.S. Dollars?
What are the Swiss doing selling dollars? I don’t have an answer to this question. But, I thought I would posit it because a reader tipped me off to a development via the Blog Alea
EU: Banks ask for a bailout for poor lending in Eastern Europe
The need to bailout banks for their aggressive lending in central and eastern Europe is becoming ever more apparent. An Austrian bank has taken the lead in getting a consortium of banks together to lobby the European Union for bailout funds.
This should be seen for an undeserved handout for individual banks. I like the argument used to support this request (bolded in the snippet below) — it is self servingly cynical, but could be effective. However, it remains to be seen whether entire banking systems or individual banks will be successful in getting any funds outside of those provided by their national governments.
Stay tuned
Violence erupts in Latvia
A friend living in Latvia wrote that he was “stunned by the chaos that broke out in Riga this evening.” I had heard absolutely nothing about it until he told me. Apparently, a peaceful protest outside Parliament turned bloody when the police started to crack down on protesters. 126 people were arrested. (Hat tip: Ken)
FT: Ukraine must pay Russia market prices for gas
The row between Russia and Ukraine over payments for natural gas looks to be de-escalating. Gazprom has committed to letting the gas flow freely again after the EU requested this action be taken. The question now is whether the core issue of payments for natural gas can be solved. The Financial Times takes a stab at this in their latest Lex column, part of which is excerpted below
Russia cuts Europe off completely from its gas
The Ukraine-Russia row over natural gas has escalated to a new high. Now, state-owned Gazprom has completely cut off supplies to Europe through the Ukrainian transit route. It still remains unclear what the ultimate aim of the Russians are in bringing the issue to this critical state. Nevertheless, it is generally believed that Russia is making as much a political statement about NATO expansion, the disregard of Russia’s sphere of influence, and the dependency of the European Union on Russia for its energy needs. One should expect a political response from the EU shortly
Who is the next Iceland?
The question on everyone’s mind in the emerging markets is who will blow up next. Arnab Das of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson takes a stab at answering that question. He targets the Baltics as the problem children and sees current account surplus nations in Asia as lest vulnerable. He also discusses his views on Russia.
Below is the video with him on CNBC giving forth his view