by Chairman Paul Volcker | Jul 18, 2011 | Commentaries
We are very pleased and honored to use by permission the latest speech that former Chairman of the Federal Reserve System Mr. Paul Volcker gave in London last Thursday, July 14, at the Cass Business School. In times of uncertainty his wise voice needs to be heard, and...
by John E. Charalambakis | Jul 11, 2011 | Commentaries
The old anthem of imperial Europe cried out, “Hail, Europe, our true Fatherland”, and Italy nowadays enters its own phase of the Eurozone crisis. Italian bonds’ spreads over Germany’s Bunds have risen to their highest levels since 2002, as the following graph shows....
by John E. Charalambakis | Jul 5, 2011 | Commentaries
As of yesterday (July 4th), it seems that the European debt crisis is entering into a new phase, with the expected new downgrades of Greek paper by the major rating agencies, which warned that “selective default” is at hand, due to the terms of the rescue package...
by John E. Charalambakis | Jun 17, 2011 | Commentaries
The storm we have been writing about in the last three weeks seems to be gaining speed. The Greek debt crisis can open Pandora’s box and unleash sovereign debt, banking, bond, and equities turmoil, generating the third phase of the crisis we wrote before (see e.g. the...
by John E. Charalambakis | Jun 12, 2011 | Commentaries
The war of words was in high gear this past week. German officials demanded participation of the private sector in a new Greek bailout package that is estimated to be around $130 billion, i.e. about 40% of the Greek GDP. If that happens, then Greece will have borrowed...
by John E. Charalambakis | Jun 3, 2011 | Commentaries
Last Wednesday the employment and production news had significant negative effects for equities. Major indexes dropped by close to 2.3%, the worst drop this year. Private sector payrolls increased insignificantly, while production slowed down significantly. These...