Archive - May 20, 2015 - Story

"Even though this is just front-loading, it is effectively an increase in the size of quantitative easing, even if just for a short period of time", one strategist tells WSJ, regarding the ECB's leaked decision to increase PSPP purchases ahead of the summer "lull." Of course this means the opposite is true as well. That is, anytime supply is net negative, the ECB will taper QE.

“When you have anti-English, pro-European nationalists in Scotland and anti-European, pro-British nationalists in England, spiced up with a few anti-English, pro-European nationalists in Wales and of course, the anti-each-other, pro-whatever your having yourself, British and Irish nationalists in that blissfully incoherent chunk of Ulster – Northern Ireland, you know you’re not in the old UK." Welcome to new Britain, Europe’s 21st century version of the Balkans!

Do you remember what happened when Cyprus decided to defy the EU?  In the end, the entire banking system of the nation collapsed and money was confiscated from private bank accounts.  Well, the nation of Greece is now approaching a similar endgame.  At this point, the Greek government has not received any money from the EU or the IMF since August 2014.  As you can imagine, that means that Greek government accounts are just about bone dry.