Mario Draghi, the Exterminator
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | Why is the ECB not announcing further interventions, helping investor confidence to recover, offering strangled banks liquidity until they start providing credit again?
Markets
“Germany still refuses to investigate its smaller banks”
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Luis Benguerel at Interbrokers: “Everybody knows the weaknesses of the German banks, which still hold some 2007 US subprime credit.”
Brussels fiscal advices miss the target
MADRID | By JP Marín Arrese | So long Germany maintains a staunchly depressed environment, Brussels fiscal advices with no plan to boost employment and growth will soon run out of steam.
The Fed to cool Bernanke’s QE down
MADRID | By Carlos Díaz Guell | Federal funds’ main interest rates, currently at 0% and 0.25%, are likely to remain untouched. Why? The Fed explained it wouldn’t increase them unless unemployment rate falls.
Who are the Real Winners From Complex Financial Regulations?
Former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton believes the response to the financial crisis has been ever more complex financial regulations. For him, that is a mistake, since they carry huge economic costs, divert talent, time and money away from productive activity and don’t make the European economy more competitive.
The Banking Union can work at no cost
MADRID | By JP Marín Arrese | Unless financial solidarity is well entrenched, the Banking Union’s effectiveness ranks close to zero.
The Fed to Barclays, Deutsche Bank: “We don’t like what you did”
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Let’s not forget, it was the Federal Reserve, through its massive liquidity injections, that saved the German banks in 2008 and again in 2010 and 2011.
Weekend read: What’s going on with Bankia stocks?
VALENCIA | By Luis A. Torralba at Valencia Plaza | Hedge Fund GLG Partners earned 1,7 million euros on Thursday with Bankia stocks while small investors are about to lose everything. Spanish regulator CNMV is investigating volumes.
Spanish corporate financing: indebtedness down, diversification up
BARCELONA | By CaixaBank Research | Corporate debt has fallen from the peak of 1,495 billion euros recorded in 2010 (144.4% of GDP) to 1,372 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012 (131.7% of GDP).
The slow but sure repo market
BARCELONA | CaixaBank Research | The action taken by the ECB has prevented a disaster and is designed to ensure a gentle, gradual normalization. Several signs support this second interpretation. For example, the early repayment of LTRO loans.