ECB

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When words matter more than substance

MADRID | All of the sudden, the feeling things might be spinning out of control has cast a gloomy mood in Spain. For a country lavishly living on others savings, finding itself short of cash has come as a shock-horror revelation. It now faces the unsparing rigour of lying in the hands of fickle and merciless markets. The deep-rooted assumption that confidence gap would be bridged as soon as the…


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If Spain goes, say adiós to the euro

What To Say Through Text To Get Your Ev Back By valenciaplaza.com, in Valencia | José Carrasco is private banking director at Banco Madrid in Valencia. Carrasco believes the European Central Bank buying Spanish bonds would reassure investors and negative headlines would then recede allowing foreign capital to go back to the country's market, where good value still abounds. What is your view on the European stock markets? With France…


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Thursday’s chart: LTROs vs real economy

how do you get your best friend to break up with your ex LONDON | Now that the European banks have again been placed in the eye of the storm, even though admittedly some more than others, a chart from BNP Paribas analysts shows why. Banks still pose a barrier at the core of most efforts towards recovery. Take the long-term refinancing operations or LTROs from the European Central Bank: they are meant to…


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Alan Meltzer has a solution for the euro

WASHINGTON | “Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin, it does not work,” had already said Allan Meltzer in 1969. Pittsburgh's Carnegie-Mellon University teacher and author of the monumental History of the Federal Reserve is the same conservative who advised John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Under Clinton's presidency he was in charge of a U.S. Congress committee that essentially claimed the end of the World Bank on the basis…


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Where are all those rumors about Spain’s bailout coming from?

NEW YORK | IMF managing director Christine Lagarde has denied it. So have U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Spanish government: there is no plan or request for a Spanish bailout. However, stocks pared losses Thursday after the Dow Jones agency published a report that the IMF had started contingency plans on a possible rescue loan for Spain. The reporter quoted “people involved in the handling of the Spanish crisis”….


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Greece is in a league of its own

Morgan Stanley brought up on Friday a clear graph on banking cross assets funded at the European Central Bank liquidity facility or the emergency liquidity assistance tools. One of the conclusions, analysts said, is that “only Greece has experienced a strong bank deposit outflow this year, although it is wo relationship advice rth noting that in Spain and Italy internal capital flows occur, too, towards the soundest and biggest banks.”…


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We are not short of arguments in Spain, yet delivery fails

MADRID | We have a case for demanding some support in resisting the current run on us, our most solid argument being that something nasty might happen to the euro should we fall in the abyss. The one based on the merits of performing our homework seems less convincing. For all the reforms undertaken, we still have a long way to go in redressing a dismal record. Sheer lack of money…


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Draghi demands a schedule towards the United States of Europe

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The very logical answer from the European Central Bank’s president Mario Draghi to the Spanish claim for that institution intervening was a rejection. Instead, Draghi demanded Thursday that European leaders make up their minds on how the euro will be in a year’s time. Draghi also argued in favour of a “banking union”. News agency Europa Press reported his declarations. “Can the ECB fill the…


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A bank managed by politicians is an economic aberration

VALENCIAPLAZA.COM | Víctor Alvargonzález is executive director at financial advisor firm Profim. Alvargonzález points at the root of all Bankia’s problems: in his opinion, a bank managed was destined to become a systemic disaster waiting to happen. He believes Spain’s finances hurt more from lack of credibility than soundness, though. Is it time to avoid the Ibex for a while? We have been sort of avoiding the Spanish market for over…


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Thursday’s charts: dumb bets

Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Greece was in free fall mode when at the European Central Bank they had the funny idea of pushing the country …downwards. The ECB said it had frozen all operations with Greek banks, which already are suffering a killing capital drain: “Central bank head George Provopoulos told Papoulias that Greeks have withdrawn as much as €700 million ($891 million) and the situation could worsen, according to the transcript…