Posts Tagged bank bailouts
We’re going to need a bigger bazooka!
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, European Union, Politics on 28/10/2011
On Thursday some greeted rises in world stock markets as a sign that the EU’s bail-out ‘bazooka’ had worked in scaring away speculators and reassuring the markets. Today’s news that Italy has had to sell 10 year bonds at a record high price indicates that simply inflating the bail-out fund is no panacea.
A tricky balancing act or an impossible one?
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics on 12/09/2011
Today the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) released its final report. Little has changed in terms of the recommendations of the Commission since the interim report, and as expected the result is a balancing act between a number of different goals. While bankers and their bashers may both criticize the result, it is clear that the Commission has done a good job considering its tricky task. The bigger question is whether the balancing act the ICB has attempted, works in practice.
A slippery problem
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, European Union, Politics on 21/02/2011
It was reported over the weekend that the Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson, has called for a national referendum on the new plan for repaying British and Dutch loans made as a result of the ‘Icesave’ fiasco. The two countries loaned Iceland €4 billion to bail out the country’s deposit insurance scheme, which could not afford to compensate British and Dutch depositors, when the Icesave savings scheme collapsed. Aside from the political ramifications of the on-going dispute, it raises wider issues about international financial supervision and insurance schemes, as well as a more pressing problem about financial responsibility.
Misunderstanding markets
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, European Union, Politics on 30/11/2010
Yesterday the Irish government finalised a rescue deal worth €85 billion for the country’s beleaguered banks. With all such large financial decisions, the initial test of success was seen to be the reaction of the markets. Thus, we all had to wait until Monday before the markets opened to see how the Irish bailout was received by the financial sector.
Irish emigration, a lesson in language barriers in the EU
Posted by Claire Daley in Economics, Education, European Union, Immigration on 04/10/2010
Last week Ireland’s financial woes were well reported, writes Stephen Clarke. It became clear that the cost of Ireland’s bank bailout was a lot higher than previously forecast. The country is burdened with a €45 billion bill for bailing out all its embattled banks, this will see the annual budget deficit rise to 32% of GDP this year, with the cost of the bailout calculated at €22,500 for each of Ireland’s 2 million taxpayers.