Euro

Head of EU’s Newfangled Bank Regulator: Markets Are Dumb, Pumps Stocks Of Teetering Banks To Keep them From Toppling

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Head of EU’s Newfangled Bank Regulator: Markets Are Dumb, Pumps Stocks Of Teetering Banks To Keep them From Toppling

It’s not often that a bank regulator proclaims stocks of teetering banks are undervalued because markets are too dumb to value them correctly. That’s what Danièle Nouy, chair of the ECB’s Single Supervisory Mechanism just proclaimed. She has a motive.

German High Court Blows Up Euro, Says ‘Oh Wait,’ Abdicates

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on German High Court Blows Up Euro, Says ‘Oh Wait,’ Abdicates

The ECB’s money-printing and bond-buying promise, lovingly dubbed Outright Monetary Transactions, became the bailing wire and duct tape that has kept the Eurozone together to this day. Turns out, it’s illegal under the EU treaties and unconstitutional in Germany.

This Ends In A “Planned Economy” – Bundesbank President

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on This Ends In A “Planned Economy” – Bundesbank President

When Jens Weidmann, President of the emasculated Bundesbank, speaks, central bankers and money printers worldwide stuff wax into their ears. “Caution,” he started out, “the euro crisis is far from over.” Then he committed central-bank heresy.

French Megabank: “Germany Should Leave The Eurozone”

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on French Megabank: “Germany Should Leave The Eurozone”

Suddenly, there’s a solution to France’s economic crisis. Unlike the cacophonous clamor from the far right to drop the euro, this one is attractively presented with graphs and in terms that even a French politician might understand. And it’s not contaminated by partisanship.

France Clamors for Currency War, Bundesbank Warns Of Housing Bubble

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on France Clamors for Currency War, Bundesbank Warns Of Housing Bubble

The euro, its dexterous management, the “whatever-it-takes” guarantees by ECB President Draghi, the trillions being shifted around to prop up banks and governments – all these efforts to keep the Eurozone duct-taped together have hit countries differently. Including France and Germany. They’re shooting at each other now, and hitting the ECB.

German Election Finally Gets Messy: “Euro Is More Than A Currency” And Greece “Shouldn’t Have Been Allowed In”

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on German Election Finally Gets Messy: “Euro Is More Than A Currency” And Greece “Shouldn’t Have Been Allowed In”

No debacle is allowed to interfere with Chancellor Merkel’s efforts to hang on to her job, and debacles get swept under the rug at least until after the elections on September 22. Every time uppity opposition voices stir up some controversy, it’s brushed off, denied, ridiculed, or minimized – and it has worked admirably well so far. But suddenly there’s Greece again.

Germany Grapples (Again) With The Choice Between Its Constitution And The Euro

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Germany Grapples (Again) With The Choice Between Its Constitution And The Euro

During the hearings before the German Constitutional Court, Finance Minister Schäuble, perhaps unwittingly, put his finger on yet another fatal flaw of the Eurozone: a central bank that could bail out speculators and pile the resulting losses on taxpayers of other countries, no questions asked, whenever it felt like it, without controls – “to save the euro,” as it were.

The ECB’s Forked-Tongue Policy To Save The Euro

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The ECB’s Forked-Tongue Policy To Save The Euro

In theory, Germany’s Constitutional Court could throw a monkey-wrench into the efforts to keep the Eurozone duct-taped together; it could rule against the ECB’s money-printing and bond-buying mechanism, lovingly dubbed OMT, that would create a “brave new Huxley-world of the unlimited debt,” a world where “money is no longer earned but printed.”

‘ECB’s Desperation Is Taking On Epic Dimensions’

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on ‘ECB’s Desperation Is Taking On Epic Dimensions’

In my interview with Voice of Russia, I talk about the ECB’s fears for its own existence. I use Spain, which is stuck in an existential crisis, as an example of the greatest “achievement” of central banks: the separation of economic reality from stock markets. And I get a chance to lambaste the French finance minister who is once again barking up the wrong tree.