A 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
Archive for the ‘Debt’ Category
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
Who Would Bail Out the European Central Bank?
August 31 | Posted by mrossol | American Thought, Debt, EconomicsAnd who is talking about this? ============== By BENN STEIL AND PAUL SWARTZ Week after week, market watchers hang on the German chancellor’s every pronouncement about the euro-zone’s debt travails, so one might be forgiven for thinking that Germany has been propping up the whole troubled enterprise. In fact, the European Central Bank has for the past 15 months been manning the front... Read more
