Greece

Much has been made about the renewed fear of Greece abandoning the European Union in the past few weeks. International media is awash with alarm that the Greek people have had enough with austerity and will vote in a new crop of leaders, who in turn will let international agreements fall by the way...

This morning, Egan-Jones Ratings slashed its rating of the Kingdom of Spain another two notches, after cutting it two notches last week, to a rating of B. For those who are unsure, Egan-Jones uses a similar scale to S&P and Fitch, so investment grade is above BBB- and sub-investment grade is BB...

Tomorrow is the informal meeting of the European Commission and the European heads of state, which is a meeting to help set the agenda and decide on exactly what they will sign at the formal meeting in June. There will be lots of headlines and quoting of every person there, but I think that there...

The New York Times’ reporters covering Europe’s financial, social, and political crises continue to channel Berlin and demonstrate an ignorance of economics so profound that it rivals the Wall Street Journal’s editorial writers and columnists. On May 18, 2012 the NYT published “Rising Greek...

Can humanity afford to have history repeat itself? In June 2010, economist Paul Krugman discussed parallels between contemporary economic policies and events in the 1930s. At that time, Krugman wrote regarding the prospect of austerity policies in Europe: "How bad will it be? Will it really be...

The S&P 500 may be on its path to make a big move although we don't know for sure in what direction. The Index has been playing around within shot distance of its historical maximum and the important 1360 support level given by the upper line of the Fibonacci indicator. The level we are...

To know the Washington Consensus as a regular citizen is to hate the Consensus.  The Washington Consensus, as the name implies, was an “inside the beltway” series of neo-liberal policies embraced by the IMF, the World Bank, and the U.S. government. It called for a minimal State and an all-...

Goldman Sachs' (NYSE: GS) rockstar Jim O'Neill reinforces his ongoing thesis that Greece-focused histeria is tedious at best. While he believes European Monetary System concerns are valid and sovereign debt issues will be there for the foreseeable future, he thinks Greece is small peanuts as long...

On Friday, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association declared that, under the terms of Greece's debt restructuring, the country had undergone a credit event. The market reacted little on the news, giving back only a few points. Friday morning it was revealed that Greece was unable to...

Just now, at 3pm ET, the window for private sector creditors to agree to the Greek debt-swap deal closed. Speculation in the markets is that Greece was able to clear the 75% threshold, and may even have gotten past the 90% threshold. This is important, because without getting a participation rate...