Englund

A deepening political crisis in Portugal and Greece’s inability to push ahead with public sector job cuts sent bond yields rocketing, reigniting concerns about the breakdown of eurozone bailout programmes after months of relative calm in the bloc. The turbulence reverberated in the rest of the eurozone periphery.  While Italy’s bond market was relatively calm, Spain’s 10-year bond yield rose 14 basis points to 4.74 per cent, and Greece’s comparable bond yield jumped 34bp to 11.1 per cent. Investors were also unnerved by another brewing showdown between Greece and its creditors after international lenders warned it that they would withhold an €8.1bn loan payment unless the government redoubled stalled efforts to gut a bloated public sector workforce. Full text Euriintelligence: Rising costs makes it increasingly unlikely that Lisbon could exit its bailout programme as planned; BreakingViews calls for a rethink of the bailout programme, which might need more m...

Risks of a hard landing for China The pilot is allowing the plane to slow down, but if it slows too much, it will fall below stall speed and drop out of the sky. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, July 2, 2013 The new Chinese leadership is trying to manage one of the most difficult of economic manoeuvres: slowing down a flying economy. In a recent note, David Levy of the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center has asked the crucial question: what is China’s stall speed? He argues that China is more like a jumbo jet /than a train/: “In recent years, a couple of engines have not been working well, and the pilot is now loath to keep straining the remaining good engines. He is allowing the plane to slow down, but if it slows too much, it will fall below stall speed and drop out of the sky.” Full text http://levyforecast.com/ Carrier Landing, Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7IaMc6dHPw I USA var så kallade National Banks länge förbjudna att lämna lån mot säkerhet i fastighet...

Euron är feltänkt från början och skadar allvarligt Europas chanser till återhämtning.  Det menar professorn i historia från Harvard Niall Ferguson och ekonomiprofessorn Assar Lindbeck. Assar Lindbeck är inte säker på att politikerna visste vad man gjorde när euron lanserades men att ”man inte ska underskatta dumhetens betydelse för världens utveckling.” EFN, "ett fristående dotterbolag ägt av Handelsbanken", 2 juli 2013 Kommentar av Rolf Englund: Man skall heller inte underskatta opportunismens och skamlöshetens betydelse Assar Lindbeck propagerade för Ja-sidan i folkomröstningen 2003 Man måste betrakta honom som en osympatisk person som utan egen förskyllan har höljts i ära. http://www.internetional.se/assar.htm#0713EFN Unintended consequences Bail-in fears grow for big depositors in euro periphery The latest initiative to build a resilient eurozone “banking union” may have the opposite effect and  spark renewed capital movement away from the continent’s tro...