Posts Tagged ‘Europe’

By David Goldman, Asia Times blog, July 7th, 2010

Bank preferred debt, I argued on March 1, 2009, would not be allowed to go under after the fashion of Fannie and Freddie preferred, because shutting off payment on bank preferreds would ruin the insurance industry. Credit protection on the insurers was trading at over 1,000 basis points above LIBOR that week, which marked the nadir for the banks.

–SNIP– If municipal debt actually defaulted, the capital position of the banking system would be impacted, bank preferred debt might stop paying, and the holders of bank preferred debt–starting with the insurers–would be in serious trouble. The $800 billion bailout package for Europe’s PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) in May was in fact a bailout for the banking system, which holds hundreds of billions of dollars worth of such debt. We don’t know quite how much, because European banks don’t have the same reporting requirements as American banks (and American banks’ overseas branches don’t have the same reporting requirements as their domestic branches).

Read more at http://blog.atimes.net/?p=1504

America’s most profligate states do not owe as much, proportionately, as Greece. But their politics are just as problematic

economist.com, 6/17/2010, Washington, D.C.

THE state of Illinois has a rather crude way of coping with its ballooning budget deficit. It stops paying bills. Already, it has failed to pay more than $5 billion-worth. State legislators are paying their own office rent to avoid eviction. Schools and public universities are having their budgets cut.

Illinois owes Shore Community Services, a non-profit agency in suburban Chicago, some $1.6m for services to the mentally disabled. The agency has had to lay off a dozen staff. Jerry Gulley, the executive director, says his outfit’s line of credit could be exhausted soon. The bank will not accept the state’s IOUs as collateral. “That’s how sad it is,” shrugs Mr Gulley.

Comparisons between incontinent American states and Greece are all the rage. Though this is an exaggeration, credit-default-swap spreads, which measure investors’ expectations of default, are wider for some American states than they are for some of the euro zone’s other peripheral economies (see chart).

There are other similarities. Like members of the euro zone, American states may not declare bankruptcy, cannot be sued by creditors and, thanks to America’s federal structure, cannot be forced to behave by a higher level of government. They also do not issue their own currency, so inflating away their debt is not an option. And, like many European governments, state legislatures and governors are reluctant to impose the necessary pain. The Illinois legislature recently passed a budget for the next fiscal year, starting on July 1st, which leaves a $13 billion deficit to be closed.

Read more at http://www.economist.com/node/16379740

by IBD Editorials, 5/06/2010

By Rep. Paul Ryan, realclearpolitics.com, April 2, 2010

Last week, on March 21st, Congress enacted a new Intolerable Act. Congress passed the Health Care bill - or I should say, one political party passed it - over a swelling revolt by the American people. The reform is an atrocity. It mandates that every American must buy health insurance, under IRS scrutiny. It sets up an army of federal bureaucrats who ultimately decide for you how you should receive Health Care, what kind, and how much…or whether you don’t qualify at all. Never has our government claimed the power to decide when each of us has lived well enough or long enough to be refused life-saving medical assistance.

This presumptuous reform has put this nation … once dedicated to the life and freedom of every person … on a long decline toward the same mediocrity that the social welfare states of Europe have become.

Americans are preparing to fight another American Revolution, this time, a peaceful one with election ballots…but the “causes” of both are the same:

Should unchecked centralized government be allowed to grow and grow in power … or should its powers be limited and returned to the people?

Should irresponsible leaders in a distant capital be encouraged to run up scandalous debts without limit that crush jobs and stall prosperity … or should the reckless be turned out of office and a new government elected to live within its means?

Should America bid farewell to exceptional freedom and follow the retreat to European social welfare paternalism … or should we make a new start, in the faith that boundless opportunities belong to the workers, the builders, the industrious, and the free?

We are at the beginning of an election campaign like you’ve never seen before!

Read more at  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/04/02/should_america_bid_farewell_to_exceptional_freedom.html