I really do think we are witnessing history in the making. Israel’s star is about to set like a tropical sun: one minute it’s there, the next it’s gone. While Turkey’s rise to world prominence is going to be spectacular. The Palestinians are about to go to the UN on the 25th of this month …
I have waited till the new blog was up to say THANK YOU! So many people have donated I am left feeling a little lost for words. This new blog format is itself a donation from Marcus Cox. All of you who come here and read the blog support it. All of you who mention …
I was going to say shit storm but thought better of it. But there is one and Dexia, which I wrote about just a few days ago, is at the centre of it. In short there is the chance the Dexia could pull down both Fortis and ING – or at least knock them off …
There were so many rumours, claims and denials this weekend you could not see the iceberg for the fog. Greece was rumoured to be about to default because the IMF and ECB would not release the next tranche of bail out cash. Athens denied it but hurriedly announced a new ‘temporary’ tax on property would plug the …
The stock price charts of the major banks look like the brain trace of man having a series of violent seizures while slowly sinking towards a flat-line coma. The US FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Authority – Fannie and Freddie’s overlord) filed suit against every major global bank in America and Europe for fraud – every …
I have agonized over this for ages but decided it was time to do it. If we can bail out the banks I thought we might be able to bail out something a whole lot smaller! This blog was never set up as a money making exercise. I started writing it because I was outraged …
I realize that this is far more political than most of what I write but I have written about the politics of Libya and of Qatar before so I hope this will not seem too off-topic. Anyway I offer it in the usual spirit of thinking aloud and to spur comment and correction. The argument …
Earlier today Josef Ackerman the pugnacious CEO of Deutsche bank, speaking at a banking conference in Frankfurt said, “Numerous European banks would not survive having to revalue sovereign debt held on the banking book at market levels.” Later, the CEO of Dexia, Belgium’s largest and most deeply troubled bank, resigned. The reason suggested by Belgium’s …
Significant pieces of news from Italy, the current epicentre of the ongoing European financial landslide. First Reuters says, Italian economic growth is likely to fall short of the government’s official forecast of 1.1 percent in 2011 and 1.3 percent in 2012, probably coming in under 1 percent, a senior government source said on Monday. Why …
Sometimes the absurdity of European events transcends all. Do you remember when Greece and its debt first hit the headlines when it was revealed that Greece had been lying for years about its real level of debt? Not long thereafter the EU Commission wrote an utterly damning report (quoted on P. 10 of this later report) …
