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)

A short piece in Alphaville that I just came across caught my eye today: “[Beware] the rise of the collateral swap. Also known as a long-dated repo. The premise was simple. Prudent institutions flush with top quality government bonds  (or even cash) wanted to secure a better rate of return — on a still relatively

There’s a good article today in the FT about how the Chinese central bank is tightening the loop holes that have allowed China’s banks to lend and borrow off balance sheet. “Tao Wang, an economist with UBS, said the significance lay not in the additional tightening, but rather in the central bank’s determination to stop lenders

It’s Jackson Hole time again. The best of the best are gathering to, as MarketWatch describes it, ‘brainstorm’ ways of dealing with the economy. God help us. MarketWatch goes on to exclusively reveal that, “The biggest puzzle of all is the sudden demise of the U.S. recovery. Sometimes there is no satire nor irony strong enough. Two rounds

Tomorrow expect further massive drops in European bank shares because of this just in from Reuters : (Reuters) – Austria, the Netherlands and Slovakia said on Thursday they want collateral on loans to Greece after Finland secured a commitment, raising question marks over a second bailout agreed for Athens last month. It does a little more

So far for the last two weeks all the panic and bad news has been about Europe, It was our turn after America hogged the lime light for so long with its shameless showing off over its debt ceiling.  But I think next week America might be about to muscle back to centre stage. Two things

There are days when the bourses fall heavily. And there are days when they jump off a cliff. Today is looking more like the latter. The catastrophic slaughter of European bourses, led by Europes’ Insolvent Banks, continues. London    -5.3%Paris         -4.2%Frankfurt  -5.07%All the rest heading to or already above 5% Banks are

Just a quick thought on the Franco-German proposals for financial harmonization. I think the heart of what is being proposed is the financial transaction tax. Much of the rest, while Germany might like to daydream, is being mentioned, I think, to provide cover for the Transaction tax. Let people object to all sorts of ideas