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Spanish economy 23rd May 2012

Is Spain’s risk premium being exaggerated? Yes, say the big companies

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Report and counter-report, this seems to be the general trend in talking about the Spanish economy’s health. Wednesday it was the CEEC’s occasion to present a report. The nation-wide competitiveness council integrated by presidents of the big Spanish multinationals assured that “expected losses in the the banking sector are limited. Since 2007, the industry has assumed €190 billion of them, including implications from last…

Spanish economy 18th May 2012

If you sow doubts you are bound to harvest uncertainty

MADRID | The Spanish financial system badly needs to get equipped with a survival kit. Not only has it been left stranded in a highly hostile territory. Its guide and guardian may have developed a rare taste for inflicting damage on it. There can be no other plausible clue to explain the Economy minister’s statement at the outcome of the last Ecofin meeting. He flatly acknowledged there were good reasons to…

Interviews 14th May 2012

Too big to fail, also too big to govern?

NEW YORK | “Errors”, “sloppiness” and “bad judgements”. Whatever. The fact is that JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon, no matter what he pleads, is the ultimate responsible for the bank’s 2 billion dollars loss through risky trade with its own money. A big embarrassment that made their stock price plummet around one tenth of their value on Friday session dragging the rest of the banking sector. Washington, Wall Street and financial…

Markets 10th May 2012

French, Italian banks’ stocks lead price loss since 2007 with 70pc drop

The aggregate of the main European banking institutions has lost almost half a billion of euros in market value, from €670 billion to just over €200 billion during the last five years. The average drop has been 65 percent. But Italian and French banks have led the fall with a 70 percent of their stock price wiped out in the aftermath of the credit crunch. As readers are well aware,…

Companies 26th April 2012

Santander, BBVA surpass €1 billion profit in Q1 2012: the geographical key

MADRID | Banco Santander registered a net attributable profit of €1.604 billion in the first quarter of 2012, a decline of 24% year on year. Santander, that released Thursday its results for the January-March period of this year, noted that this decline was mainly due to the significant increase in provisions for non-performing loans, which rose by 51% to €3.127 billion. Banco Santander revenues in the first quarter grew by more than…

Spanish economy 26th April 2012

The case against Spanish banks: how the New York Times got it wrong

NEW YORK | When one of the world’s most prestigious newspapers quotes a blogger as the main source of a story on international economy, sure that blogger’s words do get a boost. The New York Times Business front page recently spoke of “Spain’s weak spot“, saying that “A rising portion of Spain’s €663 billion, or $876 billion, in home mortgages at risk of default could lead the country’s banks to a…

Markets 19th April 2012

Historical rebuke of “obscene” executive compensation in Wall Street

NEW YORK | Because “there’s good pay and there’s obscene pay”. That’s why Brian Wenzinger, who manages more than 5 million shares of Citigroup, voted against the $15 million pay package for chief executive Vikram S. Pandit, says the New York Times. Like his firm, 55 percent of the bank shareholders rejected the company’s pay plan on Tuesday, marking the first time in Wall Street history that stock owners rebuke…

aggregation line 14th April 2012

Weekend link fest

A curated selection of links we hope can enlighten us all; some come from our corner, some do from other corners of the net. And as always, our comment widgets are anxious to get your suggestions. A weird US town teaches a lesson on small business survival La Camorra never sleeps European banks and capital reserves: never enough? Arguments inside the IMF Ha. Traders protest the system is not fair US…

In Europe 10th April 2012

The European Central Bank is dead

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | The ECB has lost all his monetary gunpowder, as this has become fragmented. In this graph I saw recently on the Greek money supply, monetary aggregates M1 M2 and M3 have collapsed. Deposits are falling, like savings accounts and time deposits. However, the monetary base or the money issued by the ECB is the same for everyone. What happens is that in normal countries the banking sector does not experience problems to expand its assets (loans), what results in an increase in deposits. The multiplier effect works. But what happens…

Spanish economy 9th April 2012

A government with bad temper in Spain

MADRID | Governments become arrogant over time and the more arrogantly they behave, the worse they do their job. Indeed, arrogance is usually a bad influence, as it leads to confusion and errors. Former president of Catalonia and an old hand in Spanish politics, Jordi Pujol, in his latest memoirs wrote of former Spain’s presidents that José María Aznar’s political ambition dwindled away because of his pride and Rodríguez Zapatero’s did so…

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