It’s the bank deposits, Jeroen Dijsselbloem!
MADRID | The problem is that some eurocrats seem unable to realise the consequences of their irresponsible talk when they land jobs on the top of the European pyramid.
Markets
Bye Goldman, bye Lehman!
NEW YORK | A double reminder of the American financial system burst was news today. On one hand, Warren Buffett earned a few hundred million dollars swapping his Goldman Sachs warrants for stocks of the company, maybe the single most lucrative bailout for a single investor. In a separate move, Lehman announced it is paying back more than $14 billion to its creditors
Risk immunity leads to banking abuse
MADRID | Any economy, save for a Soviet one, is run under the healthy guiding rule that smart decisions are rewarded and wretched ones get penalised by the market.
The EU pushes to secure banking rules, the UK thinks not
BRUSSELS | By Alessio Pisanò | UK Chancellor George Osborne said limits on bankers bonuses will make it more difficult to ensure that the banks and the bankers pay when there are mistakes. Nevertheless, no one else in the EU stood by him.
Monday’s chart: hopeful about the Ibex
During the rest of the year, the Ibex should improve its performance against the SMC, according to BNP Paribas broker.
In brief: the Dow Jones is overvalued
MADRID | Juan Enrique Cadinanos, at Hanseatic Brokerhouse, thinks US equity markets are too expensive for a slowed down economy under the burden of a huge state debt.
Where’s the ECB when the euro needs it?
MADRID | The eurozone is trapped in internal conflicts that prevent the European Central Bank to compensate, as it should, the fluctuations of money demand.
Cyprus crisis too big to handle for Mr Schäuble
NICOSIA | By Aristos Mihailides | After the failure of the EU’s €10bn Cyprus rescue plan, the German Minister of Finance has questioned the island’s low tax regime. However, a well known journalist argues that following the 1974 Turkish invasion, Nicosia had no option but to offer tax breaks.
Charts we know of the Cyprus crisis
By 2017 the two largest Cypriot banks–Bank of Cyprus and Cyprus Popular–face debt repayments of €11 billion or 86 percent of the whole economy’s output.
Rating Italy (and others)
MADRID| By Luis Martí | Lower ratings undermine market confidence, and weak market conditions are displayed as a major cause of your own lack of confidence. Looping the loop. No wonder investors rely less and less on ratings agencies.