Mase: Economics and Finance

There seems to be growing optimism in the United States that the economic recovery is picking up steam.   This is all fine and good,...

It ain’t over until it’s over… The yield on the 10-year Portuguese government bond closed above 14.80 percent yesterday, a new rec...

“Bank Seeks To Avoid Taking Loss On Bonds.” So reads the headline for the New York Times article on the dilemma of the European C...

Is Greece declaring default on it sovereign bonds? To some, it depends upon your definition of “is”.   Is a “selected default” o...

With respect to the Greek sovereign debt situation, two statements reported this morning stand out.  First, Simon Tilford, chief economis...

Mohamed El-Erian, the Chief Executive Officer of PIMCO, writes this morning that “ It is now commonly accepted that Greece’s predicament ...

 Government policymakers just don’t seem to get it! The economic philosophy governments have been using as the foundation of their budge...

 Sovereign recovery swaps are “bets on how much money will be retrieved in a default.”   The first trades took place last year.   (See “D...

The European Central Bank raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points this morning and, I believe, changed the game. Mr. Trichet, p...

Interest rate spreads on European sovereign debt jumped to new levels yesterday. On 10-year bonds, Greek debt rose to 942 basis points over...

Europe has been relatively quiet recently, except for occasional bursts of news coming from or about German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The e...