Ragnarok – Iceland and the ‘Doom of the Gods’
Iceland is widely portrayed as a post-bubble success story, but the reality is more conplex.
Read more...Category Archives: Currencies
Rob Parenteau: How to Exit Austerity, Without Exiting the Euro
Yves here. This is an important post by Rob Parenteau which outlines a viable plan for subject nations austerity-afflicted Eurozone countries with reasonably-well-functioning tax bureaucracies to escape their downspiral.
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis Discuses Bitcoin and Litecoin on RT
Yves here. Yanis makes a couple of observations which won’t sit well with digital currency enthusiasts.
Read more...New Zealand’s Latest Dodgy Export: Why FX Investors Should be Wary of Software Sold by Irish Company Paymark Autotrader
A dubious FX trading software operation closes down in New Zealand and sets up shop in Ireland.
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: What Europeans Should Know About the Current Situation in Greece
Yves here. In an interview with Edward Geelhoed, Varoufakis gives an urgent, sobering picture of the conditions in Greece, which contrasts dramatically with the claims made by Eurozone politicians.
Read more...The European Balanced Budget Disaster
In the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, most European governments allowed the automatic stabilisers to kick in and implemented some mild discretionary measures, despite the strictures of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). But it was not long before the siren calls for “fiscal consolidation” arose…
Read more...Steve Keen: The International Financial Architecture
In this video, Steve Keen reviews the history of Keynes’ proposed international currency, Bancor, and why it failed to come to fruition at Bretton Woods.
Read more...Wolf Richter: French Megabank – “Germany Should Leave The Eurozone”
France’s government is struggling to stay relevant….and Groupe BPCE may have provided an answer by telling Germany to pay up or exit the Eurozone.
Read more...Randy Wray: What If China Dumps US Treasury Bonds? Paul Krugman Inches Toward MMT
Our deficit hysterians love to raise the specter of China.
Read more...Regulators Opening New Major Front With Banks on Foreign Exchange Trading Probe
The Financial Times story revealing that regulators in Switzerland, Hong Kong, the UK and US have starting probing foreign exchange markets, based on evidence that currency traders were rigging markets, is thin on details because the inquiries are still underway. Nevertheless, these investigations have the potential to unearth a Libor-level scandal.
Read more...Robin Hood Tax: How Reformers Sabotage Themselves with Terrible Branding
If I were a still a Wall Street type, I don’t think I could have done a better job of sabotaging an effort to impose transaction taxes on big financial firms than the left has managed to do itself with lousy branding.
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: The Dirty War for Europe’s Integrity and Soul
As Lambert says, get a cup of coffee, or maybe two. This is a long piece, but that is in part because it includes many damning vignettes from the Eurocrisis, so this is the antithesis of a dry read.
Read more...French Officialdom Now Discussing Eurozone Exit
Just because a taboo has been broken does not necessarily mean that more radical action is in the offing. But the flip side is that, while we’ve been busy following debt ceiling and budget hijinx in the US, there are some surprising developments on the other side of the pond. One is that, as anti-Euro candidate Marine Le Pen is leading in polls in France, respected members of its ruling bureaucracy are deeming the Euro as a failed experiment and presenting detailed plans as to how an breakup could be executed.
Mind you, the Eurozone has been limping from crisis to crisis for so long that it’s hard to take new signs of trouble seriously.
Read more...The European Crisis: Lessons from the 1920s, the Gold Standard, and Historical Trilemmas
Yves here. This post by Michael Bordo and Howard James finds significant parallels between the 1920s and the economic and policy conflicts facing the Eurozone, which does not speak well for them being resolved tidily.
Read more...How the Eurozone Might End
Yves here. This post by Yanis Varoufakis gives a plausible scenario as to how the Eurozone could unravel. Most commentators believe the country that is most likely to rupture it is Italy. Italy has a primary budget surplus and also has a high saving rate, with the result that even under the gold-standard-like Eurozone, it still funds most of its debt issuance internally. Notice how quickly the Eurozone could fracture once one country exits.
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