Tag Archives: weimar

Is Greek Debt Contagious?

26 Feb

The Greek flu looks like it’s spreading through Europe. How contagious is it? How far will it spread?

Charles Wyplosz, Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute (Geneva), and one of the world’s leading experts on Eurozone monetary and financial matters, sets the record straight on the latest twist in the GFC:

A debt default by the Greek government, on its own, would be a non-event. Greece is a relatively small country (with 11 million people, its GDP amounts to less than 3% of Eurozone’s GDP). Contagion to Portugal, which is even smaller, would also be a non-event. Moving on to Spain and Italy is another matter…

The real worry is the banking system. Some European banks hold part of the Greek debt and, if still saddled with unrecognised losses from the subprime crisis, some might become bankrupt. Many governments have simply not pushed their banks to straighten up their accounts, and they are now discovering some of the unforeseen consequences of supervisory forbearance…

Contagious debt defaults, along with bank failures, could lead to a double-dip recession in Europe, possibly affecting the US as well. If that were to happen, with the interest rate at the zero lower bound and fiscal policy not available any more, we could face a terribly bad situation.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Hummel: The US Will Default On Its Debt

26 Feb

Barnaby warned about the possibility of US sovereign debt default. San Jose State University economist, Professor Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, makes a prediction:

It is not literally impossible that the Federal Reserve could unleash the Zimbabwe option and repudiate the national debt indirectly through hyperinflation, rather than have the Treasury repudiate it directly. But my guess is that, faced with the alternatives of seeing both the dollar and the debt become worthless or defaulting on the debt while saving the dollar, the U.S. government will choose the latter.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Rogoff Sees Sovereign Defaults

25 Feb

From Bloomberg –

Ballooning debt is likely to force several countries to default and the U.S. to cut spending, according to Harvard University Professor Kenneth Rogoff, who in 2008 predicted the failure of big American banks:

Following banking crises, “we usually see a bunch of sovereign defaults, say in a few years,” Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said at a forum in Tokyo yesterday. “I predict we will again.”

“Most countries have reached a point where it would be much wiser to phase out fiscal stimulus,” said Rogoff, who co- wrote a history of financial crises published in 2009.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

%d bloggers like this: