On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the left column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.
Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did. These posts are all related to the Greek Crisis.
Must Read Post #1
The New York Times has a fantastic graphic of the interdependence in Europe on Greek Debt with an accompanying article describing the EU dominoes.
Click on Image to Enlarge. Source: New York Times
Must Read Post #2
Pension Pulse asks is Greek Crisis Going Global with a host of references and video clips.
“After morphing into a regional dislocation, the Greek crisis is now going global,” El-Erian, the chief executive officer of Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, said yesterday in an e-mail. El-Erian shares the title of co-chief investment officer of Pimco with Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund.
Must Read Post #3
Bloomberg reports credit default swaps on European Bank bonds spread is worse than the spread during the Lehman Brothers crisis.
The cost of insuring against losses on European bank bonds soared to a record, surpassing levels triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., as the sovereign debt crisis deepened.
Must Read Post #4
Bloomberg is reporting EU to set up fund to prevent contagion. We will defend the Euro!
Must Read Post #5
This is an actual International Bank Seattlements working paper from March 2010., The future of public debt: prospects and implications, Stephen Cecchetti, Madhusudan Mohanty and Fabrizio Zampolli.
Drastic measures are necessary to check the rapid growth of current and future liabilities of governments and reduce their adverse consequences for long-term growth and monetary stability.
Now continually blaming age instead of bad health and not adjusting for the increased longevity of people kind of drives me nuts. That said, the sovereign debt ratios are off the charts. Contained within the paper are a host of GDP to debt ratios for Greece as well as other EU countries.
Comments
Federal Reserve May Bail out Foreign Central Banks!
This is unreal, first the basic defeat on audit the Fed, now the Wall Street Journal is reporting the Feds may start lending to foreign central banks to deal with the Greece debt crisis.
So, it's not just Germany being put on the hook. I'm putting this is a comment, maybe someone else wants to flesh out the story. Recall this was a huge issue caught by Rep. Grayson during the financial meltdown.
No Authorization to Do So
The Fed has no charter to bail out foreign central banks.
This is one of the things that must be dealt with. Part of the core conspiracy issues you read about is that the Fed ownership is also international and their desire to bail out other countries would back that in part.
Really the only way to deal with the Fed is for Congress to back a new world currency reserve made up of a mix of commodities and currencies which make the dollar a very small part of that mix. We can't even look at the books of our own money supply so we'll never be able to have oversight on what they actually do.
Castrate them at the source of their power.
Since You Mention Germany Here
Merkel is headed over rough road because of this and the reaction in other countries including the US will be no less either especially if this Fed bailout gets some press.
The regular press though tend to downplay and deemphasize Fed actions and relegate them to the business page when in actuality there actions are huge for us and deserve front page placement all the time.
Voter Outrage in Germany Over Greek Bailout Begins
Greek Debt?
Peter Orszag, Director of OMB, argued when he was at the Congressional
Budget Office against increasing the $3,000 limit on deductibility of capital losses from taxable income and that the government should not be in the business of bailing out investors. I assume he still feels the same
way and will so advise his boss. The Federal Reserve (arm of government or arm of banks?) should likewise not bail our investors in Greek bonds --especially those who already got a high coupon to compensate them for the risk. Nor should the Fed be in the business of saving European governments
from the difficult business of governing. Otherwise, you just get more moral hazard.
Frank T.