France

These governments have to know that these bailouts are going to affect their credit ratings. They need to steer clear of worsening that credit profile in a panic environment. The only way they can do so is by clipping bondholders instead of…

Franco-Belgian bank Dexia is being officially nationalised according to two Belgian newspapers.

At some point soon, maybe tomorrow, I will be writing an update to two posts: The Fake Recovery and The recession is over but the depression has just begun. The gist of those two posts is still operative and also very relevant, namely that…

Here’s what I am hearing. At the end, I will tell you how far-fetched I think these things are.

What will the Europeans do here then? I am anticipating bailouts, liquidity injections and capital injections. But this is looking pretty dismal now so it is not clear if that will be enough.

In order for banks to hedge against multiple defaults in the eurozone periphery, banks must increase the ratio of equity to total assets at least five percent, a German researcher has argued. Dorothea Schäfer worked out for the Frankfurther…

As the heat wave which has been hanging over Southern Europe for the last couple of weeks steadily eases off there is little sign that any of the warm air which is dissipating is reaching the chilled motors of the European and Chinese…

This is a temporary tax proposal to demonstrate solidarity in tough times. It reminds me of the solidarity tax Germans paid to deal with their reunification.

Dangerous stuff being kicked around at a dangerous time. Our sense is both leaders were relieved by the success of ECB intervention to bring down Spanish and Italian bond spreads and they will continue to rely on Trichet’s monetary bazooka…

It is also worth stressing that this solution is far from perfect. We do not live in an ideal world. It is only one possible way of breaking the vicious circle into which the Euro Area countries have now fallen. It is one possible way, and…