April 2010

Sometimes its good to think back to the way we were. Just to see how far we’ve come. Let’s go back to March 08. Seems like another era – because it was. Back then Trichet, head of the ECB said, the ECB did not approve of the FED’s policy of accepting rather dubious mortgage backed […]

So far the Greek melodrama is playing out almost exactly to script. And all the players are playing their stereotypes to a tee. The latest this morning is that there is no deal until Greece spells out details of its austerity cuts not only for this year but next as well. Why spell it out?

Here’s a question for you. How do toxic assets keep making money? Another way of asking the same thing is why do banks want to keep some toxic assets on their books rather than get rid of them? Now first-off, some assets are so toxic the banks have written them off (though sadly very few)

So now we wait of the dust to settle as the IMF inquisitors prepare their salvation and the EU prepares to learn how its done. One thing to bear in mind. The banks that would loose many tens of billions if Greece defaulted on its debts are French (€75B), German (€45B) and Swiss banks. Germany

Researchers in Japan have recently revealed something unpleasant. Something the previous Japanese government had kept purposefully hidden. Something our western governments might also wish had stayed secret. What the previous government knew but never published, is that Japan’s POVERTY rate has DOUBLED since the nation’s real estate and stock markets collapsed in the early 1990s.

I GOT THIS ONE (Could Greece have stepped on a trip wire today. Titlos again.) WRONG! The down grade on that day was, I now realise, to National Bank of Greece’s debt, the country’s biggest private bank and most of its other big banks as well. I’m afraid I read National Bank of Greece and

I am still trying to check this one. The news comes from a Polish web site. So far it seems authentic. The story is that the man who got the crash site first and filmed it was stabbed 3 times by assailants unknown. He was rushed to hospital where he was put on life support.

Well the news this morning out of Greece is that its debt has been revised UP AGAIN. Up from 12.7% to 13.6% and the advice from Eurostat that this will probably be revised UP yet again because and this I love – the Goldman Sach’s currency swaps deal and any other not yet discovered are

So the IMF proposes a FAT tax on banks. It offers this as its idea of how to regulate banks and avoid another banking crisis. I would be more willing to accept this proposal at face value if it was likely to work but it won’t. And because it won’t I think this proposal isn’t

Today, 20th April Athens had to sell €1.5 billion in debt. Experts said it was another test of Greece’s ability to continue borrowing. So the fact that they sold €1.9B has been reported as a triumph. But it wasn’t. Here’s why. This debt does not give Greece more money. This debt sale only replaces previous