Europe

There have been several developments and they have imparted conflicting impulses into the market. The S&P downgrade of a number of large banks based on a new methodology that has been unfolding over the past couple of years comes at a…

According to Spanish website Cinco Dias, France and Germany want to move from a 3% deficit target to balanced budget by the year 2016. This aim points to a clear intention by the two countries to present a deal on fiscal integration and…

Foreign financial news for 29 November 2011

I anticipate a large enough move toward limited fiscal integration in the coming days that enables the ECB to move toward a full monetisation euro area national debt by the end of the year. Interestingly enough, the initial reaction by…

Given the flurry of activity this past weekend in the euro zone, it seems clear that the Europeans have pushed the panic button. I anticipate that some sort of systemic response is likely in order to deal with Italy (and Spain), two large…

Analysis: Are Americans really shopping until they drop? | Reuters One glance at the numbers for the first big weekend of holiday shopping and you might think Americans are flush with cash and spending it freely. But a deeper…

The euro zone finance ministers meet today and tomorrow. Approval of the next tranche of aid to Greece and an agreement on EFSF leveraging is sought. Yet the real deal is still a week away and that is EU summit. A year ago, we…

Sean Egan, president of Egan-Jones Ratings Co., talked to Bloomberg Television yesterday about the agency's decision to cut Italy’s credit rating to BB from BB+. The rationale is simply that public debt in Italy is growing while GDP is not.…

"While the need to preserve confidence may imply some continuing (though potentially declining) support for senior debt -- given the potential for contagion across the banking system -- the rationale for continuing to assume the willingness…

What is becoming clearer to almost everyone is that this is now no longer simply a Euro periphery sovereign debt crisis. It has become a full blown crisis of confidence in the Euro itself.