Greece

This is another little animated story on Greece that takes a rather cynical view of the politics and economy - a bit of gallows humor, really.

Along with the EU and IMF we can be in no doubt: the reform programme evidently is on track. The only issue which seems to divide everyone – and especially those office-bound Fund employees from their more financially savvy…

This chart from Spiegel gives you a sense of the magnitude of the deficit reductions that must be accomplished in order to get the European periphery under the Maastricht 3% hurdle.   Source: Spiegel

The U.S. dollar declined in September and October as the market priced in the likelihood that the Federal Reserve would resume buying Treasuries. From late August through the actual QEII announcement itself, the dollar declined about 7.6%…

One might be forgiven for thinking that a 110 bln euro EU/IMF package would suffice for Greece and stabilize the situation as IMF packages typically do over time.   However, over the past month 10-year Greek yields have 260 bp and…

News reports indicate that Austria is refusing to release its 190 mln euro share of the EU bailout for Greece because it has not met its budget commitments.  The Fin Min Proell says that after reviewing the latest data, there is…

by Win Thin Greece has the worst performing bonds in the euro zone, with 10-year spreads to Germany blowing out 80 bp this week and 136 bp this month.  It retakes the worst-performing mantle from Ireland, whose 10-year spreads are up…

Sunday Greek deputy Prime Minister Pangalos told a local paper that in theory debt restructuring should not be completely ruled out, though the deficit would need to be dealt with first.  He argued against "demonizing" debt…

By Win Thin, Global Head Of Emerging Markets Strategy, BBH Here are some more thoughts on Moody’s actions today. In general, Moody’s has been too soft on Europe and so putting Ireland’s rating on review for possible downgrade (just like…

Topic of the Day: Greece (Wait for the parable of the story: "the smart person accepts. the idiot insists." Classis tale by Michael Lewis.) Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds | Business | Vanity Fair The Usual Fare…