TOTALINVESTOR

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Hedge funds bet big on the falling euro

Hedge funds, including Hayman Advisers and Matrix Group, have told investors that they expect the sovereign debt crisis to worsen despite the €110bn (£79bn) bail-out by the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank.

Anxiety about the financial health of Europe increased yesterday after Spain’s national bank was forced to take control of CajaSur, a savings bank ridden with distressed property debt, after a rescue merger with a rival collapsed. (more)

Missed Payments

Fact vs. Fiction on Today’s Economy

There is a lot of “noise” being tossed out by the politicos and their preferred pundits about how the U.S. economy is on the mend. Thus it is important to try and separate fact from fiction about where things really stand.

FICTION: Though sporadic, the U.S. economy will continue to improve.
FACT: The U.S. is headed for a currency crisis.

While having learned to cover their butts by adding some modest modifiers to their generally rosy forecasts, the administration’s shills (Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, et al.) are unified in telling us that the worst is over.

The fact is that the U.S., nay, the world, is headed for fiat currency crash. Let me push forward some evidence in support of that contention. (more)

Nouriel Roubini -Double Dip Recession 5 20 2010 CNBC

Burden of Irish debt could yet eclipse that of Greece

OPINION: What will sink us, unfortunately but inevitably, are the huge costs of the September 2008 bank bailout, writes MORGAN KELLY

IT IS no longer a question of whether Ireland will go bust, but when. Unlike Greece, our woes do not stem from government debt, but instead from the government’s open-ended guarantee to cover the losses of the banking system out of its citizens’ wallets.

Even under the most optimistic assumptions about government spending cuts and bank losses, by 2012 Ireland will have a worse ratio of debt to national income than the one that is sinking Greece. (more)