All Entries Tagged With: "forex"
New IMF Chief Appointment a Virtual Done Deal?
By the end of June, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will have a new Managing Director to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was forced to resign following charges of sexual assault against a maid in a New York hotel room. It seems there is only a slim chance that he will be succeeded by anyone other [...]
The Next Step for Greece (and the Euro)
Now that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has won a resounding vote of confidence in the country’s parliament, he can turn his attention to a few really difficult issues. In case you missed the irony in that sentence, Papandreou received 155 supporting votes, exactly 5 more than one-half of total votes cast. All 155 votes [...]
Euro Tracking Hopes for Greece
Over the June 18-19 weekend, eurozone finance ministers were expected to reach an agreement that would have allowed the release of another tranche of about $17 billion in bailout funds for Greece. In what has become typical behavior, the ministers decided instead to delay the release of the funds until Greece accepts a controversial package [...]
Ireland Raises Haircut Issue Again
The European Central Bank is not having a good week. The bank’s efforts to quell the rising likelihood of a Greek default, and all the bad things that would flow from that, aren’t getting any help from Ireland. Not that the ECB should have expected it. Ireland’s finance minister has once again suggested that some [...]
Greece Continues to Pressure Euro
It no longer may matter how the rest of the eurozone decides to deal with Greece and its sovereign debt. Both of the plans currently under consideration would be deemed a default. The European Central Bank and France want to persuade bondholders to roll their bonds into new issues when the existing bonds mature. Germany [...]
Eurozone Examines Two Nasty Options: Swap or Roll?
Ahead of the June 23-24 meeting of all 27 European Union members, the single currency portion of the EU is trying to reach an agreement on the second bailout package for Greece. Germany is supporting a proposal that would force Greece’s creditors to swap existing bonds for new bonds with a much longer maturity date. [...]
Euro No Longer Hostage to Greece?
Yesterday, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut Greek debt to the lowest possible rating: “CCC”. That’s three steps lower than the country’s previous “B” rating. Surprisingly, the EURUSD strengthened following the announcement, leading one to wonder what might be happening. First of all, S&P is the last of the three major rating services to issue [...]
Can Greece Survive?
Now that the European Central Bank has signaled another interest rate rise in July, forex traders are once again turning their attention to Europe’s sovereign debt troubles. The poster child for these is Greece, which is balancing on the brink of calamity. Greece stands to suffer even more pain if the ECB does indeed raise [...]
Iceland Sells First Bonds Since 2008
Conventional wisdom may say that Iceland did everything wrong. Following a banking crisis in late 2008, the government nationalized the banks, devalued the Icelandic currency, and paid off depositors while forcing bondholders to write down investments. Ireland, another country with a failed banking system, chose instead to guarantee the assets of its major banks. This [...]
European Inflation on the Front Burner Again
Now that Greece has reached an agreement with the “troika” of the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the IMF, forex traders are waiting to hear from the ECB on the inflation issue. Will the bank’s chairman once again declare that the ECB must exercise “strong vigilance” regarding inflation? The last time Jean-Claude Trichet, [...]
