Loan sharking Greece, I see someone in Germany is reading my blog

I doubt I have that much influence on German M.P's as the idea of posting collateral for a loan is not that exotic. . .

"The Greek state must sell stakes in companies and also assets such as, for example, unpopulated islands," Frank Schäffler, a member of parliament for the pro-business Free Democrats, told the Bild daily.

Getting the Greeks to hand over title after they default could be another matter.  For those of you who think that unlikely; Greece has spent the majority of time since 1800 in default.  (This Time Is Different, 2009, page 98 & 99)

Hugh Hendry debating economists and ambassadors on the Euro and Greece. Loan sharking in the EU.

Hugh Hendry, in the guise of the evil speculator debates Stiglitz and the Spanish ambassador to the UK on the current situation in Greece.    The Greek situation is a mess and in my opinion a 'bailout' would create a tremendous moral hazard.  Ireland, Spain, and Portugal would all scream foul and demand their own cash / backstop.    Only if the bailout includes draconian spending cuts and severe punishment for failure would it actually solve the problem.  Considering we are talking about Greece which has a 200 year history of reneging on its debt the odds drop by quite a bit of a sucessful workout.

Even if you could get the Greeks to promise to spending cuts, would they follow through with it?  The Germans (presumed donor) could agree to purchase Greek debt ONLY AFTER they cut their budget each and every year until the have a balanced budget.  No balanced budget, no more debt buys by Germany.  Perhaps the Germans could attach a percentage of  EU funds flowing to Greece as their payment source? 

Even better, take the title to a few Greek Islands as collateral.  Don't pay up, you get an island (or 20 or so) 






There's some great commentary afterwards at zerohedge on this debate. Go on over and check it out. 


ht Zerohedge

Has the US dollar turned? It certainly looks so.

Several major currencies are weaker against the dollar.  The Australian dollar, Euro, and Loonie are all trading past their 20,50 and 100 day moving averages. The Yen is above the 20 and 50 and nudging up against the 100 day moving average.  The concern over Greece is hitting the markets and causing a world wide derisking.  Is this the end of current US Dollar weakness? I think so.   The currency markets seem to trade on technicals quite a bit (I'm not an expert in currencies by any stretch of the imagination.)  and punching through all those moving averages it a big nail in the coffin of US Dollar weakness.

We'll see in a few months if I'm right.

Some pretty graphs to show you whats going on.  The Euro fall is impressive.

Currency and stock market gyrations

For those of you who happen to follow the markets every day, the last few sessions have been extremely odd.  I have some non equity concurrent indicators I follow and they suddenly stopped working about 3 sessions ago.  I don't day trade so I haven't been whipsawed in my personal or clients' accounts, but the action in the market has taken on a different tone in the last few days. 

Today the market was up nearly 1+% and then down nearly 1+% within an hour and in the currency markets the dollar is stronger against most major currencies.  Here's some pretty pictures to show what I mean.  For the Canadian dollar and Yen, up is a stronger dollar.  For the Euro and Australian Dollar, down is a stronger dollar.  (Look at the fraction symbol and you'll figure it out)

These are all hourly charts from freestockcharts.com

Australian dollar is has punched through all 3 moving averages: The 20, 50, and 200

Canadian dollar has been in an downtrend for a few days.

Euro getting whacked today?  It also just moved through the 200 hour moving average.

Like the Canadian dollar, the Yen has been weakening for several days.

These are only hourly charts but it does show 'something happening' and a possible change in direction for the dollar.  Will the dollar actually change direction or is this all one big head fake to sucker in the dollar bulls? 

Don't know but get out your popcorn and watch the show.