Interesting proposal from Germany on how to handle the Greek crisis surfaced late last week. It is rather simple – Greece would give up control over its tax and spending decisions. A new “budget commissioner”, appointed by the Eurozone, would have the power to veto Greek budget decisions. Under this plan, paying off creditors would [...]

Coming week is full of big fundamental announcements, including from central banks. On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan will disclose its interest rate decision. The BoJ has no room to cut rates any more, but it could introduce some unconventional measures. After all, the Japanese central bank lags behind its counterpart in this area. For example, it [...]

On Friday, Standard and Poor’s downgraded nine European countries, including France and Austria. Both of these countries are large guarantors of the European Financial Stability Facility, otherwise known as the bailout fund. Combined, France and Austria are responsible for Euro 180 billion of credits supporting the fund. For the EFSF to retain its AAA rating, [...]