Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bailout, Brussels, CH4, Cyprus, ECB, energy, EU, euro, Gazprom, Israel, Lebanon, Levant, Levant Basin, Leviathan, Natural gas, Russia, Syria
Cyprus has known from the beginning that its bailout is tied to its potential petrol dollars, while the EU has attempted to couch this in all manner of moral-high-ground rhetoric.
What will the EU do now? Will it bail Cyprus out on kinder terms to keep Russia from getting hold of the island’s gas? Monday is D-Day: This is the deadline the European Central Bank has set for Cyprus to come up with $6 billion in order to “qualify” for a bailout package.
Cyprus is playing Russia and the EU offer each other right now, hoping to bring the specter of a deal with Russia close enough to make Brussels blink and give Cyprus more negotiating power.
Watch the deals in progress with this in mind: Not only is Cyprus’ financial collapse at stake here. Also at stake is Russia’s monopoly on the European gas market and the Europe’s entire gas future.
via Oilprice.com: EU Caught Playing Dirty and it’s all about Russian Gas.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: After Austerity, austerity, euro, Europe, eurozone, fiscal prudence, fraud, fraudtastic, fraudtastic financial crisis, government, Greece, Ireland, joe stiglitz, migration area, Nobel Prize, optimal currency area, politics, Spain, Stiglitz, the austerity fairy, the confidence fairy
Pretty good little essay here from Joe Stiglitz.
[…]
Europe’s single-minded focus on austerity is a result of a misdiagnosis of its problems. Greece overspent, but Spain and Ireland had fiscal surpluses and low debt-to-GDP ratios before the crisis. Giving lectures about fiscal prudence is beside the point. Taking the lectures seriously – even adopting tight budget frameworks – can be counterproductive. Regardless of whether Europe’s problems are temporary or fundamental – the eurozone, for example, is far from an “optimal” currency area, and tax competition in a free-trade and free-migration area can erode a viable state – austerity will make matters worse.
[…]
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/after-austerity
Just listening to the news you’d think Spain and Ireland were deeply in debt prior to the fraudtastic financial crisis, but no.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: banking crisis, debt default, default, euro, eurozone, EZ, Spain, unemployment
From a post on Naked Capitalism.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: debt as percentage of gap, debt to GDP, euro, eurozone, EZ, financial crash, GDP, meltdown
From Credit Writedowns..
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Calculated Risk, currency values, euro, eurozone, forex, post-euro
From Nomura via Calculated Risk/FT Alphaville.
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 