The financial pundits and Eurozone boosters are gloating, with fingers crossed behind their backs. The recent auction of Spanish sovereign bonds by Madrid reached its target sale in excess of two and a half billion euros. But what the cheerleaders ignore is that the bonds sold for only two reasons; a substantial increase in the yield on the 10-year bonds from 5.4 percent to 5.74 percent. The increase of 34 basis points was also helped by the perception that the European bailout fund stands ready to assist Spain and her creditors.
Despite all the recent happy talk about the global economy allegedly “turning the corner” and the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis being ameliorated, the signs are all there for those with open eyes. The crisis remains, and despite the policy of kicking the can down the road, all the indicators point to deterioration rather than amelioration.
The debt crisis contagion in the Eurozone continues to metastasize. With Italy’s ten year government bonds above the red line of 7 percent yields despite a new government, Spain is now approaching that same zone of danger. Spanish government bonds with ten year maturities are very near the toxic level of 7 percent. With the two largest PIIGS nations in the Eurozone on the verge of insolvency, it is quite clear that the attempts to a avoid a contagion from the Greek debt crisis have been a monumental failure.
The politicians in Europe are so desperate that they have actually ditched democracy in a last ditch effort to avert a catastrophic implosion of the Eurozone. Appointing unelected governments and forbidding popular votes on economic and fiscal policy , not to mention eroding national sovereignty are the last refuge of the bumbling European politicians. The latest developments in the Spanish debt crisis show that these desperate measures are likely to be as dysfunctional as all other previous efforts to forestall an inevitable disaster from occurring.
Officer Larry of the NYPD is on his way to Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan to arrest peaceful protesters involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Being a public spirited member of the New York Police Department, Officer Larry does remind us that there is a global economic crisis underway that rivals the Great Depression of the 1930s.
In an earlier blog piece, I reported on the fact that ratings agency Fitch had dumped Madrid’s credit rating. Standard & Poor’s had also cut the Spanish government debt rating. Now Moody’s, the other major credit ratings agency, has joined the parade by dropping Spain’s rating by two notches. Furthermore, Moody’s added that France, currently with a AAA rating, faces acute danger that its rating may be dropped in the future.
The Eurozone debt crisis is clearly not being alleviated by the desperate machinations of the bumbling politicians. The crisis is getting worse, it is spreading, and along with that somber reality goes a rising tide of public anger and protest. The sovereign debt crisis is currently impacting Europe with dire consequences for the entire global economy.
Officer Larry of the NYPD is on his way to Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan to arrest peaceful protesters involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Being a public spirited member of the New York Police Department, Officer Larry does remind us that there is a global economic crisis underway that rivals the Great Depression of the 1930s.
