Much is being done of the fact that Greece could be on the verge of reaching of some kind of agreement with its creditors. It started a few months ago when Sarkozy supposedly negotiated a “voluntary” forgiveness of about 50% of debt held in private hands. This includes hedge funds, banks, pension funds and other [...]

The major market mover on Friday turned out to be not the dismal US Trade Balance, which again showed growing deficit, but a wholesale downgrade of European countries by Standard & Poor’s. After months of threats, the rating agency finally delivered the goods, ending France’s and Austria’s triple-A status Friday. It lowered Italy’s and Spain’s [...]

As if Europe did not have enough problems, French president Sarkozy intends to raise the level of animosity with his insistence on introduction of the so-called Tobin tax. Its objective is to tax financial transaction within EU. Needless to say, not everybody is thrilled with this prospect and while France claims to have support of [...]