A Couple Quick Points…

The ESM primer is useful to read, but it is far less impressive than the headline would make you believe.

On central bank loans to the IMF back to the countries, is that a ploy so that the IMF can get seniority over existing bondholders and gain direct control over budgets?  I’ve been confused why the IMF needs to be involved and assumed it was a problem with central banks lending money directly to countries.  Maybe that is the case, but maybe this is a way to get more control over those countries, using IMF policies, and maybe the IMF loans will in fact be senior to existing debt?  That might be cynical but would be par for the course.

On a side note, Europeans seem to love night clubs much more than Americans.  Maybe that is why they make all these announcements at 5 am?  They are used to “table service” shutting down around that time and having to make a decision of what to do next.  I can count how many good decisions I’ve made at 4 am after an all-nighter on one hand.  Why will this be any different.  It feels to me like at the end they shrugged their shoulders and decided to settle because it wasn’t going to get any better and they didn’t feel like saying the night had been a waste.