The dire state of creditworthiness in the Eurozone governments and banks
I had an interview with John Butler on the state of creditworthiness amongst Eurozone governments and banks – not good!
Eurozone dream in tatters as ‘financial vandalism’ threatens EU stability
Bob2023-09-11T12:04:24+01:00With the Eurozone’s money supply shrinking for the first time since 2010, a banking expert has said Europe’s economy has been damaged by what he called “incoherent financial vandalism”.
Bob Lyddon also believes the situation is being exacerbated by members of the EU27, whom he claims have […]
Cross-examination by contrepoints.org of my presentation in Aix-en-Provence about the European Stability Mechanism
Bob2023-09-07T14:11:04+01:00My book, upon which all is based
After my presentation at the IES-IREF Summer School in Aix-en-Provence about the European Stability Mechanism and its dependency on France’s retaining its AA-rating, the French business website contrepoints.org asked me a series of follow up questions, and here are the answers in English.
Here is a link to the French […]
Euro is like Bitcoin, substantially without backing
Bob2023-09-06T15:30:01+01:00Collapsing Euro is riskier than ‘gambling on Bitcoin’
The Express reinforced my Comment piece themselves the following day:https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1800197/collapsing-euro-bitcoin-gambling-debtA leading economist has warned that the Euro is only being sustained because the credit rating agencies have not downgraded Germany yet.
Writing for Express.co.uk Bob Lyddon, has warned that investing in the currency is now less safe than “gambling on bitcoin” and other crypto currencies […]
The euro – no better than bitcoin?
Bob2023-09-06T15:25:56+01:00Keeping the flag flying for the euro
This piece appeared as a Comment in the Daily Express. It is about the implications of the European Stability Mechanism being so weak, given that it is the main backing for the euro:https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1799489/EU-latest-news-euro-against-pound-euro-collapse
Digital currencies – bitcoin, stablecoin, Britcoin et al – makes your head spin. The spinning has helped […]
European Stability Mechanism hanging by a thread on France’s credit rating
Bob2023-09-05T13:17:59+01:00The Daily Express picked up on my article pubished through IREF about the European Stability Mechanism:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1797868/eurozone-euro-eu-france-credit-rating
The ESM’s firepower – to back the debts of Eurozone member states and thereby to act as the backstop for the currency itself – depends upon its having backers of sufficient size and with high enough credit ratings.
The credit rating […]
UK’s debt is NOT larger than the EU’s
Bob2023-09-05T12:44:20+01:00Bruges Group book summary
The Campaign for an Independent Britain published this piece that the UK’s debt is not larger than the EU’s as the Daily Telegraph had claimed, if the EU member states’ shadow debts and contingent liabilities are factored in:https://cibuk.org/eurozone-debt-dwarfs-that-of-the-uk/
My figures on the EU are drawfrom my book ‘The shadow liabilities of EU Member […]
InvestEU, NetZero and the growing debts of EU citizens
Bob2023-07-27T08:55:03+01:00As presented at the IES-IREF Summer University in Aix 20-22 July 2023
I made a presentation at the IES-IREF Summer University in Aix-en-Provence about an aspect of my book, ‘The shadow liabilities of EU Member States, and the threat they pose to global financial stability’.
The relevant aspect is the build-up of off-balance sheet financing through the […]
The European Stability Mechanism hangs by a thread – on France’s credit rating
Bob2023-07-26T10:48:18+01:00The ESM and its image
As previously published on IREF Europe: https://en.irefeurope.org/publications/online-articles/article/the-european-stability-mechanism-hangs-by-a-thread-on-frances-credit-rating/
Introduction
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) backstops the euro. Its nominal size is €705 billion but its lending capacity is lower at €500 billion, and the main condition attached to that is that the member states guarantees of the ESM’s solvency must be good enough […]
Eurozone’s ‘shadow debts’ start to become real ones, and threaten the Bundesbank with bankruptcy
Bob2023-07-07T14:23:15+01:00Published by The Bruges Group on 29 June 2023
The German Federal Audit Office (‘Bundesrechnungshof’) has warned that the Bundesbank may need a bailout due to losses on the EUR650 billion of bonds it bought as part of the Eurozone’s equivalent of Quantitative Easing. The Daily Telegraph reported on this on 26 June.
Of course the risk […]