Paul Krugman assembles remarkably diverse coalition of economists who agree he babbles nonsense http://t.co/RwcyqrfM
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Europe Channel: Latest Posts
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Europe
Greece and the Troika’s Treachery
Here’s the draft of the supposed agreement to “sort out” the Greek debt problem once and for all. According to Bloomberg, here’s the essentials: Greece’s 2012 GDP will shrink by as much as 5%. Greece is expected to return to growth in 2013. Greece will cut 15,000 in state jobs in 2012. Minimum wage will [...]
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Dan Alpert's Two Cents
Dow, Alpert, Rupkey, Coy on Greece Debt Crisis – Bloomberg Video
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — Mark Dow, portfolio manager at Pharo Management LLC, Daniel Alpert, managing partner at Westwood Capital LLC, Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, and Bloomberg Businessweek’s Peter Coy talk about Greece’s sovereign-debt crisis. They speak with Carol Massar on Bloomberg Television’s “Taking Stock.” (Source: Bloomberg)
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Europe
Greece Responds to Troika Deal with Immediate Two Day Strike, Threatens with “Social Uprising”
Even as the ECB’s very own Mario Draghi is now peddling Greek deal rumors, which are essentially a reaffirmation that the country will “pledge” to return to GDP growth in 2013, we are already seeing real, not pledged, or promised, consequences of this deal, whether real or not (ignoring that Venizelos just said that it [...]
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The Wilder View
Unfounded Obsession With the Greek Minimum Wage
The Greek minimum wage is apparently a point of contention between the Troika (ECB/EU/IMF) and the Greek government. The NY Times cites competitiveness gains as a rationale for the minimum wage cut: The goal of any pay cuts would be to help make Greek workers, who are generally less productive than workers elsewhere in Europe, [...]
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RGE Analysts
Will the Euro Survive the Debt Crisis?
Restoring confidence in the eurozone (EZ) rests on its ability to generate growth and reduce the competitiveness gap in the periphery. As fiscal austerity is bound to deepen the recession, the possibility of debt restructurings, exits and the eventual breakup of the EZ must be taken into account. The financial crisis has exposed the institutional [...]
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Europe
The Elephant in the Room Is Spain, Not Italy
Another day and the markets remain fixated on whether Greece comes to a “voluntary” arrangement with its creditors. The key word is “voluntary” because the myth of “voluntary compliance has to be sustained so that those deadly credit default swaps avoid being triggered. But let’s face it: Greece is a pimple. If the rest of [...]
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Europe
Greece – Cutting Out the Middle Man
It seems that central bankers and politicians are endlessly resourceful when it comes to innovating ways to profit themselves and bankers at everyone else’s expense. Where I had thought Greek default inevitable just two weeks ago, I no longer think so today. It appears that Sarkozy, Merkel and the Troika have decided to prevent a [...]
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Dan Alpert's Two Cents
Tinkerbell Economics – The Confidence Fairy, Pixie Dust and a Sleeping Dragon
While we may be hours away from a partial (and certainly a stopgap) agreement in the talks among the Greek government, the troika and private sector creditors, it is doubtful that a deal will emerge in a fully constructed fashion that will survive its application in the real economy. It is likely that the only common view amongst [...]
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Europe
Another Experiment?
In the fall of 2008, US authorities conducted a financial market experiment. They allowed a large and heavily interconnected firm, Lehman Brothers, to file for bankruptcy, apparently under the belief that the consequences should be limited as everyone knew this was coming. I think that, in retrospect, US policymakers wished they had pursued an alternative [...]
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Peterson Institute for International Economics
How Euro Brinkmanship Is Beginning to Succeed
European Union leaders had the umpteenth euro crisis summit at the end of January. Indeed the EU Council meets so often that the descriptions of these gatherings should be changed from “yet another summit” to “back in session.” The slide to near-permanent policymaking has occurred as the EU Council begins to resemble a sitting parliament. [...]
