Eurozone

1736 days ago

Tom Winnifrith Bearcast: That's Entertainment...Sports Direct Results

In this podcasr I look at Sports Direct (SPD), the economic mess in the Eurozone that lunatics like Malcolm Stacey want us hooked up to and at Kier (KIE) – when did it become uninvestable and is there a bull case?

2766 days ago

Its a post Brexit bankster firing-fest but hang on why is it happening INSIDE Euroland?

Remember that before the Brexit vote the City warned that if we voted to leave the EU then tens of thousands of well paid bankster jobs across London would be lost. Oddly the Remainers thought that this would drive folks to vote for them because - outside London we really care about ensuring banksters continue to earn megabucks. 

Maybe if Project Fear had announced that if we stayed in the EU all banksters would be lead through the streets in chains and pelted with rotten fruit the result might have been different? As it was, cheered by the thought of thousands of banksters being fired and losing everything, the UK voted to leave. And now the bankster firing fest is underway...but hang on!

3751 days ago

Euro la la Land Let’s party on with the ECB as it pretends its banks are not bust (again)

With the European Central Bank (ECB) the comedy never stops. You and I know that a material number of European banks and financial institutions are bust. Even a total Euro loon like Michael Heseltine does not, I suspect, stash any of his millions with Greek, Spanish, or Italian banks these days. But the ECB wants us all to think differently and with its 2014 stress tests is going to prove it. Oh yes. 

Let me first take you back to October 23^rd of last year when the ECB tried to reassure those of us who have our doubts about some of the banks in the PIIGS nations by saying that it in 2014 it would use “stricter” rules than before when testing the balance sheets of the Eurozone banks. There was a firm pledge to insist that all banks could show a capital ratio of 8%. How very prudent Mr Draghi.

Now wind forward to this week and the ECB is now saying (according to Bloomberg) that the Capital Requirement when it runs the balance sheets through a recession stress test will be 6%, i.e. the same as in 2013. Stricter? Er... perhaps not after all. But it means that the ECB will be able to show that nearly every bank is solvent even in a recession scenario and so we can all sleep safely in our beds. Stop worrying little people everything is okay.

And it gets better.