Greece’s Shortening Negotiating Runway and Possibly Erroneous Assumptions
Le Monde published a defiant op ed by Alex Tsipras over the weekend. The wee problem is that Greece is well past the point where political appeals will work.
Read more...Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy
Why a Greek Default is Likely to Strengthen the Hand of Austerians
Many fear that a Greek default would lead voters elsewhere in Europe to favour default over austerity. In contrast, this column argues that it is more likely to have the opposite effect
Read more...A Unifying Approach to Preventing Asset Price Bubbles
An integrated regulatory approach with a common leverage ratio for debt-based financing across the financial system would prevent bubbles
Read more...Wolf Richter: When Betting on QE Suddenly Goes Wrong
Central banks think they’re omnipotent – until they aren’t.
Read more...Greece: An Endgame Finally in Sight?
The noose continues to tighten on Greece.
Read more...A Parallel Currency for Greece: Part II
Yves here. I’m quite interested in reader reactions to this scheme. My big reservation is that the amount of the scrip devised by the authors, the TCC, has to be limited to the an amount of discount of future tax payments that is deemed to be credible. Given that Bill Mitchell has estimated that Greece […]
Read more...Are The IMF and the EU at Loggerheads Over Greece?
An overview of the history of the economic dispute between the IMF and the Eurozone creditors over Greece, and what that means for the ongoing negotiations.
Read more...Bill Black: Krugman is Half Right
Paul Krugman’s latest column fingers some valid targets but lets way too many other equally deserving ones off.
Read more...Greece’s Hot Summer
Figures confirm the pattern already observed last month, with a marked improvement in the primary balance achieved mostly via expenditure cuts and a more limited improvement in revenues.
Read more...Wolf Richter: Afraid of Losing Trillions, Wall Street Fights Fed Rate Hikes
Wall Street working up to another tantrum to head off a rate hike from the Fed. Will it work again?
Read more...Ilargi: Will Austerity Be the Straw that Breaks the EU AND the UK?
Cameron thinks he’s riding a major victory, and he will now be called upon to deliver on his election promises, which just so happen to include a deepening and acceleration of austerity measures.
Read more...UK Elections Today: Unpredictable, But Depressingly Little Room Between the Parties on Austerity
By David Dayen, a lapsed blogger. Follow him on Twitter @ddayen While in this country somebody’s probably writing up an early analysis of the 2024 elections, for UK elections they do quick-strike campaigns only lasting a handful of weeks. And today voters cast their ballots in an election most observers agree will really get interesting […]
Read more...Alicia García-Herrero: Additional Monetary Easing for China?
As many other central banks in the Asian region, the People Bank of China (PBoC) has been on an easing mode for a few months now and more seems to be in the store. The once relatively polarized debate on what the PBoC monetary policy stance should be has increasingly leaned towards additional easing. Some analysts are even proposing full-fledged quantitative easing (QE), in the form of US Treasury sales to raise funds for assets locally, such as local government bonds and other hardly–performing assets. There is no doubt that the PBoC could, thereby, bring another big stimulus into the already heavily massaged Chinese economy as it would help debt-saddled local governments to clean their balance sheets and, at the same time, allow banks’ to lend further. As if this were not enough, any additional easing – capital controls permitting- would also push the RMB to a more depreciated level, bringing thereby an additional push to external demand.
Read more...Wolf Richter: China Containerized Freight Index Plunges to Multi-Year Low, Shanghai-EU Rates Totally Collapse, US Rates Morose
Weak demand in the Eurozone; inventory build-up in the U.S., and free money meant carriers added more and more ships. How does the movie end?
Read more...An Assessment of the State of the World Economy
Complex forces are shaping macroeconomic evolutions around the world. In this column, IMF’s Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard describes some of these forces and provides an overview of the state of the world economy. Putting the forces together, the baseline forecasts are that advanced countries will do better this year than last, and emerging countries will slow down. Overall, the global growth will be roughly the same as last year, with the macroeconomic risks having slightly decreased.
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