Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy

Wolf Richter: Angela Merkel’s Desperate And Risky Gamble

After the German-French council of ministers in Paris, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a joint TV interview at the Elysée Palace, the official residence of the French president. Merkel berated François Hollande, Sarkozy’s top challenger in the upcoming presidential election. Then Sarkozy lashed out against him. Never before had a German chancellor campaigned so hard for a French president.

Marshall Auerback: The Elephant in the Room is Spain, Not Italy

By Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist and hedge fund manager. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives

Another day andthe markets remain fixated on whether Greece comes to a “voluntary” arrangement with its creditors. The key word is“voluntary” because the myth of “voluntary compliance has to be sustained so that those deadly credit default swaps avoid being triggered.

But let’s face it: Greece is a pimple. If the rest of the euro zone could cut itlose with a minimum of systemic risk, Athens would have long gone the way of Troy. The real issue is whether the credit default swaps trigger such a huge mess with the counterparties that it creates renewed systemic stress which more than offsets the benefits to the holders of the CDSs.

The more interesting question is: suppose Greece finally does get a deal?

Daniel Alpert: Tinkerbell Economics – The Confidence Fairy, Pixie Dust and a Sleeping Dragon

By Daniel Alpert, the founding Managing Partner of Westwood Capital. Cross posted from EconoMonitor

While we may be hours away from a partial (and certainly a stopgap) agreement in the talks among the Greek government, the troika and private sector creditors, it is doubtful that a deal will emerge in a fully constructed fashion that will survive its application in the real economy.

It is likely that the only common view amongst participants in the various talks is a desire to try to avoid a disorderly default. Beyond that there is a severe disconnect fostered by parallel realities that seem unable to intersect. Accordingly, a deal that can hold up both in the streets of Greece and in the markets is both illusive and unlikely. Here’s why I think so.

Recently I have had opportunities to meet with and question senior members of the economics establishment within the German government and the broader German intelligentsia. Our meetings were held under Chatham House rules so I can’t name names, but – after several meetings with policy delegations from Germany over the past 60 days – I am prepared to sum up what appears to be the pretty-universally-held German policy position as follows (my apologies if the below evidences some degree of frustration – but these encounters leave me quite chagrined):

Michael Hudson: Banks Weren’t Meant to Be Like This

By Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

A shorter version of this article in German will run in the Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung on January 28. 2012

The inherently symbiotic relationship between banks and governments recently has been reversed. In medieval times, wealthy bankers lent to kings and princes as their major customers. But now it is the banks that are needy, relying on governments for funding – capped by the post-2008 bailouts to save them from going bankrupt from their bad private-sector loans and gambles.

Yet the banks now browbeat governments – not by having ready cash but by threatening to go bust and drag the economy down with them if they are not given control of public tax policy, spending and planning. The process has gone furthest in the United States.

Philip Pilkington: Is QE/ZIRP Killing Demand?

em>By Philip Pilkington, a journalist and writer living in Dublin, Ireland

Warren Mosler recently ran a very succinct account of why the Fed/Bank of England’s easy monetary policies – that is, the combination of Quantitative Easing and their Zero Interest Rate Programs – might actually be killing demand in the economy.

Warren Mosler recently ran a very succinct account of why the Fed/Bank of England’s easy monetary policies – that is, the combination of Quantitative Easing and their Zero Interest Rate Programs – might actually be killing demand in the economy.

Tom Ferguson on SOTU: New Financial Fraud Commision Could Actually Slow Down Investigations

Political scientist Tom Ferguson agreed with our dim take of the news reports last night on the formation of a “new” financial fraud commission on mortgage abuses (which is actually just part of an existing fraud commission that has done squat). He also saw the apparent co-optoins of New York’s Eric Schneiderman as an effort to rein in the attorneys general that oppose the mortgage settlement.

If you are concerned and skeptical as I am, PLEASE write or call Schneiderman’s office. While it is unlikely to derail this particular train, it does not hurt Schneiderman know that you recognize this as a likely Faustian bargain.

Reader DS sent this note as an example:

Dear Atty General Schneiderman,

Having admired the integrity with which you have supported the rule of law
related to Wall St shenanigans and the mortgage crisis, I find it deeply distressing to read the following:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/01/is-schneiderman-selling-out-signs-up-to-co-chair-committee-designed-to-undermine-defectors-to-mortgage-settlement-deal.html

I hope/trust that you will not ‘sell out’.

You can call Schneiderman’s office at 800-771-7755 or send a message via this page.

To the Ferguson interview:

Germany Loses Its Grip

By Delusional Economics, who is horrified at the state of economic commentary in Australia and is determined to cleanse the daily flow of vested interests propaganda to produce a balanced counterpoint. Cross posted from http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/01/greece-lines-up-portugal/“>MacroBusiness.

And so we roll on…

One of the things that amazes me about the European “crisis” is how symptoms of the underlying problems of the macro-economic system that is the Eurozone get confused with the actual problem. Let’s take the current situation in Greece for example:

Lessons for Europe’s Fiscal Union from US Federalism

Yves here. Even though both writers are affiliated with the Peterson Institute, this post talks about the need for countercyclical mechanisms in the eurozone, which makes it less austerian than the prevailing line of thinking in the officialdom. But some readers will not be so keen about the worship of Hamilton.

By C Randall Henning, Professor of International Economic Relations, American University and Martin Kessler, Research Analyst, Peterson Institute of International Economics. Cross posted from VoxEU

In the last few months, several Vox columns have drawn parallels between Europe today and an emerging – and even less stable – United States in the eighteenth century. This column stresses that Europe’s leaders in search of a fiscal union need not seek to replicate the US experience but they should at least learn from it.

Greece Lines Up Portugal

By Delusional Economics, who is horrified at the state of economic commentary in Australia and is determined to cleanse the daily flow of vested interests propaganda to produce a balanced counterpoint. Cross posted from MacroBusiness.

Another weekend…. and we are still waiting for an outcome on Greece. The chief negotiators from Institute of International Finance (IIF) have left the country yet we still haven’t heard anything that sounds remotely like a deal. FT reports that the brinkmanship hasn’t ended but there doesn’t appear to be too much wiggle room left:

Greece Poised to Default

By Delusional Economics, who is horrified at the state of economic commentary in Australia and is determined to cleanse the daily flow of vested interests propaganda to produce a balanced counterpoint. Cross posted from MacroBusiness.

Another melee won by the ECB overnight with the LTRO once again pushing sub 3 year sovereign auctions into a “happy place”.

Satyajit Das: Europe’s The Road to Nowhere, Part II – Roadblocks Ahead

By Satyajit Das, derivatives expert and the author of Extreme Money: The Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives – Revised Edition (2006 and 2010)

Over the next few months, the Euro-Zone faces a number of challenges including: the implementation of the new arrangements, possible further downgrading of a number of nations, refinancing maturing debt and meeting required economic targets. There will also be complex political and social pressures.

Implementation of the new fiscal compact may not be a fait accompli.

Wolf Richter: Greece – Disagreement Everywhere, Rift in the Troika

Austerity measures are taking their daily toll on Greece. Suicides and attempted suicides have jumped by 22.5%. Unemployment rose to 18.2%. Pharmacies are having difficulties obtaining medications. More cuts are coming. If there is no agreement with the bailout Troika, Greece will default in March. But now, even the Troika is in disarray.