All Entries Tagged With: "Ireland"
Trichet Will Intervene Again in an Effort to Save the Eurozone
On Thursday, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) Jean-Claude Trichet conducted a press conference. In the conference, Trichet stated that the ECB would resume purchasing European bonds in an effort to prevent the debt crisis from worsening in Spain and Italy. On Wednesday, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi addressed the Italian parliament in [...]
Berlusconi Blames the World for Italy’s Problems
On Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi addressed his nation’s parliament in a speech designed to calm fears over the Italian economy. Reuters reports that Berlusconi refused to resign, promising to finish out his term and bring economic growth to Italy. In recent weeks, calls for Berlusconi’s resignation have intensified as economic conditions in the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Portugal Next Up for More Austerity
Now that Portugal has elected a new prime minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, the country is waiting to see what comes next. First, Coelho’s Social Democratic Party needs to form a coalition government, very likely with the Democratic and Social Center Party, a conservative group. It’s a little odd perhaps that the Portuguese tossed out the [...]
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, [...]
Strong Euro, Weak Eurozone
Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote a recent blog post explaining why the euro continues to exhibit strength while the eurozone itself is in serious trouble. The short answer is, “It’s the interest rates, stupid.” Krugman puts it more elegantly, but that’s the nub of the answer. The strong countries at [...]
