Crisis In Euroland

Believe it or not, despite the Eurozone crisis, most countries sovereign credit risk fares better at the end of 2010 vs. 2009
The funny thing is that most people wouldn't believe the premises of the story that in the diourse of the last year, risk has fallen dramaally. Well, it is true considering where we were at the end of 2009 we thought that the world was going to end. When it didn't the market breathed a sigh of relief. Via Moody's: The “man-bites-dog” story of 2010 is that global sovereign credit risk actually generally improved in 2010, even in Europe, where the Sovereign Debt crisis intensified and ...

FORTUNE: 2011: Year of the bank run?
The deposit flight compounds the stress on a Financial System whose massive property-lending losses already have driven the government to accept an unpopular Bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Worse yet, it shows that the solutions policymakers slapped together in the fall of 2008 helped in some cases to create even bigger problems -- ones that are now coming due. Unconditionally guaranteeing bank deposits is just such a policy, in a country where loan loss...

Guarding the Pork Barrel: Germany Resists Attempts to Reform EU Agricultural Subsidies
The European Commission wants to reform the Common Agricultural Policy, which eats up almost half of the EU's Budget and which primarily benefits large farms in "old" Member States. But Germany and France are resisting moves to change the system so it favors smaller, organic farms. The status quo suits them very nicely. An old cobblestone road leads to Carl-Albrecht Bartmer's property. Small, detached houses line Lindenstrasse in the village of Löbnitz an der Bode, near Magdeburg in eastern

Top Chinese official promises to buy Spanish debt
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang vowed to buy more of Spain's government Debt on a three-day visit to the country, delivering a significant vote of confidence in the battered economy. The visit came as Spain battled market concerns that it may need an Irish or Greek-style international rescue because of a Debt refinancing crunch this year. "We believe Spain, with its government and people working together, will surely overcome current economic and fiscal difficulties," Li reportedly told Spanish ...

Greece to build fence to stop migrants
ATHENS, Greece, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Greece aims to build an 8-mile border fence and boost its Coast Guard to stem illegal Immigration via neighboring Turkey. Greece's Public Order Minister Christos Papoutsis, who announced the plan Monday, said it was necessary after more than 100,000 people entered Greece illegally in 2010. "This is the hard reality and we have an obligation to the Greek citizens to deal with it," Papoutsis said in a statement. "Greek society has exceeded its limit in its capacity ...

Inflation in eurozone hits 2.2 percent
In a release, Eurostat said the estimate is unofficial and considered a "flash estimate." Nevertheless, prices are escalating significantly faster than the 1.9 percent annual Inflation rate recorded in November, Eurostat said. The euro zone is made up of 17 Member States with Estonia joining the group this week and not included in the estimate. The flash estimate includes no details or data breakdowns country by country. But the estimate is considered "reliable," Eurostat said, with 21 of the pa...

Iran snubs main critics as it invites western diplomats to tour disputed nuclear sites
Iran has snubbed Britain, France, Germany and the United States in a surprise invitation to Diplomats to visit its Controversial nuclear plants. Ambassadors from Russia, China and the European Union were invited by Tehran to tour the sites, but the nations most opposed to its nuclear programme were excluded. Iran's surprise invitation yesterday to several ambassadors accredited to the UN ADVERTISEMENT nuclear Watchdog in Vienna was a bid to show openness about its disputed atomic activities,...

Spelman urges EU subsidy rethink
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is to call for a fundamental rethink of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. She will tell farmers at the Oxford Farming Conference the policy distorts trade and must be changed. Ms Spelman will also say Subsidies should have less emphasis on food production, and reward farmers who take steps to protect the environment. Her comments come as negotiations begin ahead of major reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2014. Many of the farmers attending ...

Bond crisis on the way?
With strong Christmas sales and the Stock Market surging to a two-year high, talk is spreading that the long-awaited recovery is at hand. But gleaning the news from Europe and Asia as U.S. cities, states and the Federal Government sink into Debt, it is difficult to believe a worldwide Financial Crisis that hammers governments, banks and bondholders alike can be long averted. Consider. Fitch and Moody's have just downgraded the debt of Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Hungary. In Budapest, the poli...

EU may shift bank failure costs: official
By John O'Donnell Brussels (Reuters) - The European Union's executive will propose rules this week that could force those that lend to troubled banks to shoulder more of the cost of winding them up, a senior EU official said on Tuesday. The... Brussels (Reuters) - The European Union's executive will propose rules this week that could force those that lend to troubled banks to shoulder more of the cost of winding them up, a senior EU official said on Tuesday. The proposal to pass the pain of a b...

Inflation Jumps in Europe...
PARIS — Higher prices for food, oil and other commodities are starting to stoke Inflation in the euro area, data released Tuesday indicated, while British residents got their first taste of higher taxes on retail goods and services. Annual Inflation in the euro area jumped to 2.2 percent in December from 1.9 percent in November, according to an initial estimate from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency. The release was significant because it means that Inflation has breac...

Moving Beyond Gloria & the Gals
Lock up your daughters, here come the feminists! Or rather, the so-called feminists. Because what is “feminist” about teaching generations of women that men are the enemy, all-powerful, oppressive and malevolent? What is feminist about the message that women are Victims, passive and powerless? Absolutely nothing. And finally, after 50 years of this wrong-headed orthodoxy being dressed up as liberating and empowering, a report exposes it as nothing but a big fat myth. Published today,...

Greece to build wall on Turkish border
Young immigrants at a detention centre in Filakio on the Greek-Turkish border. Photo: AP Brussels: Greece has announced plans to build a wall along its 206-kilometre land border with Turkey to keep out Illegal Immigrants. Christos Papoutsis, a Greek Interior Minister, insisted the wall was necessary after Brussels intervened last year to prevent an Immigration crisis by sending an elite taskforce of border guards to protect the frontier between Greece and Turkey, the European Union's most insecu...

EU may shift bank failure costs: official
By John O'Donnell Brussels | Tue Jan 4, 2011 11:58am EST Brussels (Reuters) - The European Union's executive will propose rules this week that could force those that lend to troubled banks to shoulder more of the cost of winding them up, a senior EU official said on Tuesday. The proposal to pass the pain of a bank's failure on to bondholders is one of a series of measures designed to cope with lenders in difficulty. It could be law in Europe by 2012. Officials hope it will guard against a rep...

A call in France to end 35-hour work week
PARIS, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The mayor of a Parisian suburb, a potential Presidential Candidate, has called for an end of the 35-hour work week in France. Manuel Valls, mayor of Every, is pushing for the change so French workers can "Work more in order to work better," France 24 reported Tuesday. In a Radio Interview, Valls, seen as a strong contender in the race to serve as presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party, said in a radio interview: "The world is changing fast, and it is the responsibi...

Hungary unmoved by EU criticism over media law (AFP)
Budapest (AFP) – Hungary's government insisted Tuesday it would not bow to outside pressure and rethink its disputed media law, even after the European Commission expressed concerns and said it would sanction Budapest if necessary -- even during the nation's EU presidency. "It isn't necessary to change a Hungarian law just because it is subject to criticism from abroad," Zoltan Kovacs, state secretary for communication, told national radio. "Before criticising,...

Aftenposten: Germany, U.S. plan secret spy project
Source: CTV Oslo, Norway — Wikileaks documents published by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten say that Germany and the U.S. are engaged in a $270 million satellite spying program that is causing friction in the European Union. Citing diplomatic cables sent from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, the newspaper said Monday that the project was presented as a commercial enterprise but is actually run by the German intelligence service. Aftenposten cites cables revealing that the HiROS venture -- a network o...

Greece To Build Anti-Migrant Fence Along Section Of Turkish Border
Greece on Monday announced plans to build an 8-mile long fence along a section of its land border with Turkey to keep out illegal migrants. The Border Fence plan was announced by Public Order Minister Christos Papoutsis, who claimed that more than 100,000 illegal migrants had entered Greece though the porous border with Turkey just last year alone. Pointing out that Greece has reached its limit in taking in illegal migrants, Papoutsis stressed that his government was determined to build the bo...

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Is This Your Average Secular Bear?
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Cullen Roche is the founder of Pragmatic Capitalism. IS THIS YOUR AVERAGE Secular BEAR? I’ve argued now, for longer than I wish, that we are in a secular Bear Market driven by global imbalances. While rallies are sure to ensue during the secular bear it’s important to understand that a secular bear generally doesn’t end with a few Bailouts and a return to the good old days (think 2003-2007). Secular bears end when the excess...

Forget It If You Were Hoping For An Easy Solution To The Eurozone Crisis In 2011
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. One of the biggest macro threats to the Global Economy in 2011 continues to be instability in the Eurozone. And while the Bailout fund, set to provide a financial backstop for fringe eurozone members, in in place, Germany and France cannot agree on what to do next. Germany wants a fund similar to the one that already exists (the EFSF), according to Der Spiegel, except it would be buying European Sovereign Debt, instead of the ECB. Germany, and...

EUSA Pharma Announces Priority Review Status for ERWINAZE(R) BLA
EUSA Pharma completed the rolling submission of its ERWINAZE BLA on 1 November 2010, after receiving Fast Track designation from the FDA. Priority Review reduces the target regulatory assessment period to six months from the date of submission. EUSA Pharma is seeking marketing approval for ERWINAZE for use in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic Leukemia in patients with hypersensitivity to E. coli-derived asparaginase. The product is currently approved in a number of countries, including Canada...

China set to bailout Spain with a massive purchase of sovereign debt
China goes on its Bailout tour and expresses confidence in Spain's ability to recover from its economic crisis. Beijing will buy Spanish public Debt despite market fears of an Irish-style bailout. They may get their hands burned, but if not, they will profit handsomely by buying Debt on fire sale as other investors panic. China has also bought some of Portugal's debt, but steered clear of Ireland and Greece. The comments by Vice Premier Li Keqiang were made in an op-ed piece in Spain's leading...

The New Year and Financial Crises
The New Year is likely to bring renewal of financial problems in the European Union. In Greece, the crisis was fiscal in origin and spread to Greek banks and banks in other countries that had lent to Greek banks and the Greek government. In Ireland, the crisis began with problem real-estate loans at Irish banks. That spread to European Banks, mainly British, that had lent to Irish banks. In its year-end issue, The Economist reminds us of the 2008 banking crisis in Iceland.  The Ic...

Auto sales up for first time since the recession
For the year, car and truck sales came in at 11.6 million, up 11 percent from last year, automakers reported Tuesday. For December alone, sales were 1.14 million, also up 11 percent from a year earlier. While the figures have some in the industry talking about a return to the glory days, it’s a fragile idea. Rising Gas Prices or more economic trouble could still shake the confidence of American car-buyers. But for now, executives are optimistic about this year. General Motors, Ford and Toy...