French Connections - The Greek Bond Exchange
The proposal in July 2011 for the extension of the maturity of Greek bonds emanating from the Élysée Palace reflects French strengths first identified by Napoleon III: ?We do not make reforms in...
View ArticleStill Stressed After All These Tests!
For the second time in two years, the European Banking Authority (?EBA?) completed tests on European banks to demonstrate their ?solvency? under conditions of ?stress?. The results have been over...
View ArticleNowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide
The crisis threatening to engulf world financial markets has been brewing since 2008. Until recently, markets were Dancing in the Streets. Increasingly, another Holland-Dozier-Holland standard also...
View ArticleThe Financial Compass
Roddy Boyd (2011) Fatal Risk: A Cautionary Tale of AIG?s Corporate Suicide; John Wiley & Sons Inc, New Jersey Justin Cartwright (2010) Other People?s Money; Bloomsbury, London Nicholas Dunbar...
View ArticleEuro-Zone?s Leveraged Solution to Leverage
If as Albert Einstein observed insanity is ?doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?, then the latest proposals for resolving the Euro-zone debt crisis requires...
View ArticleEurope's Plan to Have A Plan to Have A Plan etc
The most recent EU plan was too little, too late and involves too much wishful thinking. Even if the plan could be implemented then there?s no reason to believe that it would work. This summit will...
View ArticleEurope's Seemingly Inevitable Slide Towards Financial Disaster
At best, European plans to resolve the continent?s debt crisis have been to provide funds to tide over the immediate funding problems of weaker Euro-zone members. It does little to deal with the...
View ArticleSchool for Economists
Nicholas Wapshott (2011) ?Keynes/ Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics?; Scribe Melbourne John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper (2011) Endgame: The Debt Supercycle and How It Changes Everything;...
View ArticleGreece Lives To Default Another Day!
Following protracted negotiations, the Greek government has agreed on a new Greek austerity package. The bond exchange is likely to proceed with bond holders? suffering losses of over 70-75%. The...
View ArticlePravda on Financial Innovation
In the old Soviet Union, Pravda, the official news agency, set the standard for ?truth? in reporting. Discriminating readers needed to be adroit in sifting the words to discern the facts that lay...
View ArticlePersonal versus Personalities
Jonathan Fenby (2012) Tiger Head, Snake Tails: China Today, How It Got There and Where It is Heading Robert Frank (2011) Who Repo?d My Jet: the manic millionaires, and why they?ll lead us to the next...
View ArticleTilting at Windmills
Richard Duncan (2012) The New Depression: The Breakdown of the Paper Money Economy; John Wiley, Singapore Simon Lack (2012) The Hedge Fund Mirage: The Illusion of Big Money and Why It?s Too Good to be...
View ArticlePerceptions of Beauty & Stock Valuations
The American comedian Will Rogers provided sage advice about investing: "Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't...
View ArticleThe Setting Sun ? Japan?s Coming Debt Crisis
Japan?s Nikkei 225 stock average rose by around 23% in 2012 and has continued to rise in early 2013. Much of the increase was since the announcement of the election in late 2012, when the index rose...
View ArticleThe Truth of the Matter
Stephen D King (2013) When The Money Runs Out: The End of Western Affluence; Yale University Press David Roche and Bob McKee (2012) Democrisis: Democracy Caused The Debt Crisis. Will It Survive It? An...
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