MADRID | Dumping damaged assets at a price much below accounting value and cumulated provisions will entail large own resources imbalances for the banks taking part in the Sareb bank. JP Marín Arrese is sorry for taxpayers.
MADRID | The European economy desperately seeks ways to boost its recovery. Could it be so simple as to get a weaker euro, after all? wonders economist JP Marín Arrese.
“To avoid the euro zone spinning out of control, conditions imposed on Spain should be tailored to be fairly met. That inevitably involves further flexibility in its deficit goals,” says economist JP Marín Arrese.
MADRID | As France pushed for in the last euro summit, the EU-wide banking supervisor would be set up by 2013. But its work will not begin until after Germany’s elections in the second half of the next year, and direct bank recapitalisation is out of the table, again. Ms Merkel was the real winner.
Germany isn’t just refusing to play the paymaster’s role, it effectively is barring the way towards a banking and a true economic union for the euro zone. The upcoming summit could be one more missed chance to fix the common currency area.
Market reaction to Spanish sovereign downgrade by the ratings agency may not have shown visible concerns on Thursday, but the credibility of Madrid’s and Berlin’s recovery plans is ebbing away.
Investors’ hoping that Madrid successfully implements the 2013 Budget were left wondering again after the IMF announced its gloomy expectations. For economist JP Marín Arrese, Spain’s euro partners will make a mistake if they keep pushing the country into the same line Greece, Ireland and Portugal have been forced to walk.
The European Stability Mechanism, the euro bailout fund, was designed to avoid a rapidly approaching doomsday scenario. But Germany’s tendency to backtrack in the last moment will only scare investors even more. Market pressure on Madrid is mounting again.
MADRID | The weakness of Oliver Wyman’s Spanish banking test is similar to that of the national budget, economist JP Marín Arrese opines. Without growth, Spain could be rescued only to see risk premiums and credit costs decreasing. The threat of a depression would still loom.
What exactly is Germany doing? It may succeed in shying away from the rescue bill now but it risks loosing the euro area market. Economist JP Marín Arrese warns the collapse of the common currency is not far from becoming a very real threat.