Famously, the rapper Eminem declared "I'm back" on one of his albums and reviewers noted with some surprise: Has he been gone at all?
I have not been away, I have been working my blog under the name "Connecting the dots" and it is likely to reappear soon under that name soon. But until that is in place, I will publish my opinions here.
When I review what I wrote in 2012, it is surprising to see how little has changed:
QE is still in place, except that ECB has now replaced FED as the driver. Economic growth is still way weaker than politicians hope, and the reasons are the same: consumers are still saving too much and the European banks still carry too many bad loans on the balance in order for them to lend freely.
Japan remains an unmitigated disaster. Seen from the helicopter it is incredible that anybody is still surprised to see that a country with a rapidly shrinking population is experiencing negative growth.
The German establishment is still fighting against a reasonable European monetary policy, based on a mixture of angst and a rigid belief that rest of Europe must become like Germany in order for healthy economic growth to return to the continent.
Egged on by the Tea Party, US Republicans have taken further steps away from economic sanity - one would have sworn that it was impossible. The only good thing is that the political paralysis has created a situation where the economy has been able to recover healthily, undisturbed by ideological incursions.
A couple of things are new, though. Some countries have negative interest rates, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland. Oil has fallen to comfortable levels. Russia is trying to reestablish Soviet era glory on the backdrop of an impending economic disaster.
And then over to a subject as relevant today as in 2012: The European monetary policy and in particularly the impact of the debt crisis on certain South European countries. Italy is of course the 800 pound gorilla in the room with a government debt in excess of 130 per cent of GDP and more than 2,000 bn EUR.
Add that Italian banks still drag a ton of bad debts along. 8 years after the onset of the financial crisis, many banks in Europe's south (broadly defined) have still not managed to write off the bad loans and move on.
Italy, German wise men and haircuts
I found this article and it is interesting reading. Apparently the German Council of Economic Advisors now recommend that before the institutions of the Eurozone will help a country with a bail-out, the holders of the country's debt will have to take a "haircut", i.e. a programmed loss of a certain percentage of the bonds. Rumours are that Finance Minister Schäuble is backing the proposal.
This breaks with a tradition that has survived even the Greek debt crisis: Eurozone countries holding debt of another Eurozone country will not suffer losses on that debt. Private debt holders, however, can lose money, as they did in the case of Greece.
By now gingerly suggesting that other countries must suffer a loss before help can be granted to a country in need, Germany will make sure that they will not be the only ones to insist on budget discipline. They simply obtain that everybody else will also stand to lose money. The effect is of course to avoid that Germany is the only villain to insist on budgetary discipline.
If the proposal is accepted by the other Eurozone countries, Germany will not be alone in resisting "frivolous" proposals from left-wing or populistic new governments in e.g. Portugal, Spain or, oh horror, Italy.
The Germans are understandably tired of being portrayed as latter day nazis imposing iron discipline on freedom-loving countries with young and dynamic governments, as it happened in Greece. The German proposal would remove the focus from Germany as the sole source of budgetary rectitude. Everybody else would have an incentive to put pressure on countries who habour pipe dreams of breaking with austerity demanded by the Eurozone.
It is intelligent, at least seen from a German point of view. To me it again looks as if Germany in its rigid adherence to the belief that every Eurozone country should become a mini-Germany continues to impose rules that simply imposes more instability in the name of stability.
The proposal will give other governments an incentive to put pressure on "irresponsible" governments. It will also give all investors a motive to sell government debt in the affected countries as soon as the word "bail-out" is mentioned.
Ideology continues to stand in the way of ending the economic crisis. Ideology prevents an economic policy that will support economic growth in Europe. Wonder if anybody has calculated the price Europe has paid as a result of a sluggish recovery over the past years.
I have not been away, I have been working my blog under the name "Connecting the dots" and it is likely to reappear soon under that name soon. But until that is in place, I will publish my opinions here.
When I review what I wrote in 2012, it is surprising to see how little has changed:
QE is still in place, except that ECB has now replaced FED as the driver. Economic growth is still way weaker than politicians hope, and the reasons are the same: consumers are still saving too much and the European banks still carry too many bad loans on the balance in order for them to lend freely.
Japan remains an unmitigated disaster. Seen from the helicopter it is incredible that anybody is still surprised to see that a country with a rapidly shrinking population is experiencing negative growth.
The German establishment is still fighting against a reasonable European monetary policy, based on a mixture of angst and a rigid belief that rest of Europe must become like Germany in order for healthy economic growth to return to the continent.
Egged on by the Tea Party, US Republicans have taken further steps away from economic sanity - one would have sworn that it was impossible. The only good thing is that the political paralysis has created a situation where the economy has been able to recover healthily, undisturbed by ideological incursions.
A couple of things are new, though. Some countries have negative interest rates, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland. Oil has fallen to comfortable levels. Russia is trying to reestablish Soviet era glory on the backdrop of an impending economic disaster.
And then over to a subject as relevant today as in 2012: The European monetary policy and in particularly the impact of the debt crisis on certain South European countries. Italy is of course the 800 pound gorilla in the room with a government debt in excess of 130 per cent of GDP and more than 2,000 bn EUR.
Add that Italian banks still drag a ton of bad debts along. 8 years after the onset of the financial crisis, many banks in Europe's south (broadly defined) have still not managed to write off the bad loans and move on.
Italy, German wise men and haircuts
I found this article and it is interesting reading. Apparently the German Council of Economic Advisors now recommend that before the institutions of the Eurozone will help a country with a bail-out, the holders of the country's debt will have to take a "haircut", i.e. a programmed loss of a certain percentage of the bonds. Rumours are that Finance Minister Schäuble is backing the proposal.
This breaks with a tradition that has survived even the Greek debt crisis: Eurozone countries holding debt of another Eurozone country will not suffer losses on that debt. Private debt holders, however, can lose money, as they did in the case of Greece.
By now gingerly suggesting that other countries must suffer a loss before help can be granted to a country in need, Germany will make sure that they will not be the only ones to insist on budget discipline. They simply obtain that everybody else will also stand to lose money. The effect is of course to avoid that Germany is the only villain to insist on budgetary discipline.
If the proposal is accepted by the other Eurozone countries, Germany will not be alone in resisting "frivolous" proposals from left-wing or populistic new governments in e.g. Portugal, Spain or, oh horror, Italy.
The Germans are understandably tired of being portrayed as latter day nazis imposing iron discipline on freedom-loving countries with young and dynamic governments, as it happened in Greece. The German proposal would remove the focus from Germany as the sole source of budgetary rectitude. Everybody else would have an incentive to put pressure on countries who habour pipe dreams of breaking with austerity demanded by the Eurozone.
It is intelligent, at least seen from a German point of view. To me it again looks as if Germany in its rigid adherence to the belief that every Eurozone country should become a mini-Germany continues to impose rules that simply imposes more instability in the name of stability.
The proposal will give other governments an incentive to put pressure on "irresponsible" governments. It will also give all investors a motive to sell government debt in the affected countries as soon as the word "bail-out" is mentioned.
Ideology continues to stand in the way of ending the economic crisis. Ideology prevents an economic policy that will support economic growth in Europe. Wonder if anybody has calculated the price Europe has paid as a result of a sluggish recovery over the past years.
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