The Germans And Paperwork
So, there are headlines that there will not be a meeting tomorrow because the paperwork isn’t done. As much as that sounds bogus to me, and we should be selling off, I have to relate a story. I was working for a German institution. A very old school German one. I had to do a […]
If You’re Waiting For The Afternoon Rally…
If you’re waiting for the afternoon rally, you may want to go home. The expectation that we will rally after Europe goes home is once again extremely high. Traders make the Pavlovian response of buying stocks as the closing bells ring in Europe because they have become conditioned to it. It seems to prevalent of […]
(BN) Rehn Calls on Spain to Spell Out Deficit-Reduction Measures
He is one busy non elected official. +——————————————————————————+ BN 02/14 14:46 Rehn Sees Determination to Prevent Disorderly Greek Default BN 02/14 14:11 EU’s Rehn Says Crisis Shows Serious Risks Macro Imbalances Pose BN 02/14 14:44 *REHN SAYS FAIR TAX SYSTEM IS ESSENTIAL ELEMENT FOR GREECE BN 02/14 14:44 *REHN SAYS EU STANDS BY […]
A Weird Start To The Day…
Futures sold off a bit early in the evening on the back of Moody’s Downgrades which weren’t that important since they left France and the UK alone and only played catch up with S&P on the rest and they already had Portugal as junk so not a big change. Comments coming out of Germany didn’t […]
PSI, Troika, And Tic Tac Toe
I have been struggling with two issues that I just can’t make sense of. At the risk of coming across as a bigger geek than usual, I feel like the darn computer in “War Games” trying to win at tic tac toe (was tic tac toe ever fun again after that movie?) two things make […]
Greek Bonds and PSI – Beware the Ides Of March (Or At Least The 20th)
So what is happening with PSI? Here is a chart of the Greek bonds due on March 20th. They have allegedly been trading up. I use the term “allegedly” because the bonds are supposedly quoted 2 to 4 points wide, on a million up. So not exactly a liquid market. But let’s assume the chart […]
(BN) Papademos Received 199 Votes of Support in Greek Austerity Vote
So the vote was 199-74. In theory the 3 parties that backed Papademos should have had 253 votes. These 3 parties expelled 43 “deputies” for defying the party line. I can’t tell whether that is part of the 74 or these are separate. There should be closer to 300 voters, so not sure what happened […]
Peace In Our Time
Markets are rallying on the back of Greece’s approval of the austerity measures, and all I can think of is the ill-timed 1938 speech by Neville Chamberlain. But analyzing that leads to dark places, far too dark for a Monday morning when the markets are up. So I’ll try and lighten the mood, and only […]
*PAPADEMOS SAYS EARTH IS FLAT
I remain curious why he is allowed to say that default is chaos without a shred of evidence, and countless examples to the contrary. His job, the reason the EU instated him as puppet was to do their bidding, yet every statement he utters in an effort to get that accomplished is treated as “gospel” […]
A Greek Default Doesn’t Need To Be Chaotic For Greece
The rhetoric coming out of Greece has reached a fever pitch. Papademos and Samaras are both out their creating dire images of a post apocalyptic Greek state if a default occurs. Maybe it is a good time to remember what Papademos’ job is. He wasn’t elected. He doesn’t represent the Greek people in a fashion […]
