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Last week I showed you a chart from ProPublica in my post State unemployment insurance insolvency: 50 little Hoovers which demonstrated how states are being killed by the financial strains of unemployment insurance.  Well, this week ProPublica is back with more detail behind that chart – and, as you can imagine, it’s not exactly bullish.
They [...]

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Marc Chandler, Global Head of Currency Strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman has an alarming note out this morning on economic policy.  I take notice because Chandler usually writes in more nuanced and non-apocalyptic tones.  For example, he begins:
The risks are asymmetrical.  Many of the world’s national economies, in various stages of recovery, are still highly [...]

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The eurozone’s manufacturing sector is growing at its fastest pace in two years.  However, there are dramatic differences in how manufacturing is faring within the eurozone which point to the currency as a major source for the loss of competitiveness in Greece, Spain and Ireland.
The eurozone manufacturing purchasing manager’s index came in at 52.4 for [...]

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The Absolute Return Letter, February 2010
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for [...]

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This is a post which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros.
“British or German taxpayers cannot finance the failures of others,” German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to the Associated Press. “Solidarity also means everybody adheres to common rules.”

France is not working with Germany [...]

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Edward Hugh here. This is a post which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros.
Well, the Spanish government are due to announce their 2009 fiscal deficit number this morning, together with their adjustment plan for reducing the annual fiscal deficit to below 3% of GDP by 2013. This rather distasteful news will be presented [...]

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This is a post which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros.
Well there certainly is a lot happening out there at the moment. And Monday’s successful bond sale which left the Greek government triumphantly proclaiming they could comfortably meet their 2010 borrowing program now seem to belong to a lifetime ago. The bond raised [...]

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As 2009 came to a close, it was obvious to me that the writing at Credit Writedowns had taken a decidedly American-centric tilt despite our experience outside of North America.  This is not something I am happy about because Marshall Auerback and I had written a decent amount about Europe earlier in the credit crisis. [...]

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Edward Hugh here. This is a post which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros.
Sometimes it surprises me what some people consider to be news. Tony Barber points out today in the FT Brussels blog that the EU has the power to mount bailouts of any member country under “exceptional circumstances”. As Tony rightly [...]

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Edward Hugh here. This is a first post at Credit Writedowns, one which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros. Expect to see more content from me here in future.
The post title is the conclusion drawn – rather surprisingly – not by some bank analyst, or by a Credit Ratings Agency, but by the [...]