The US is on this same highway, aren’t we? No one is willing to say, and no one wants to hear the truth. =============== ATHENS — As Greece and its lenders prepare for another week of tense negotiations, European officials now say that the task is less to help the country through its troubles than to avoid the sort of uncontrolled default... Read more
Archive for the ‘Debt’ Category
Hungary won’t be the last . . .
January 11 | Posted by mrossol | Debt, EconomicsA word to the wise.. ======== By Matthew Lynn LONDON (MarketWatch) — Much like Greece, Hungary was one of those small, slightly peripheral countries that most people in the financial markets probably thought they could get through a career without ever worrying about very much. With a population of slightly less than 10 million, and with a total gross domestic product of less than... Read more
The Union Zee Bridge
December 1 | Posted by mrossol | Debt, Party Politics, The LeftWhat does it take for some people to learn a lesson? ======= Andrew Cuomo has a bridge to sell you, and we wish that was the set-up to a punch line. The New York Governor and government unions are hatching a plan to use the state’s pension funds to bankroll public works like replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge. In a radio interview with... Read more
What Housing Risk?
December 1 | Posted by mrossol | Debt, EconomicsBefore the 2007 housing bust, financial analysts who raised questions about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s shaky finances were dismissed as cranks. So it’s worrying to see a thoughtful critique of another taxpayer-backed monolith—the Federal Housing Administration—receive a similar brush-off. The flap centers around an American Enterprise Institute paper “Is FHA the Next Housing Bubble?” by Wharton real-estate finance professor Joseph... Read more
Italy’s Debt: A Hangover From Joining Euro
November 17 | Posted by mrossol | Debt, Economics Tags: EuropeBy MATTHEW DALTON European authorities are treating Italy’s debt problems as the product of a dysfunctional political culture. The chorus from Brussels and Frankfurt is that dispassionate technocrats, armed with help and advice from the euro zone, are needed to introduce essential reforms into a hidebound economic system. But a closer look at the numbers reveals Italy’s heavy debt burden isn’t a... Read more
