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Cyprus and Jamaica – a tale of two island bailouts
Both have a $25 bln tourism-led economy, and both will get about $1 bln in help from the IMF. Sure, Cyprus has its banks, while Jamaica has bauxite. Those differences aside, no euro shackles are...
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Gold teeters on edge of bigger falls
The safe-haven metal is vulnerable. The Cyprus crisis and Korean fears have helped it surprisingly little. Cypriot gold sales and analysts’ downgrades are soft blows. Barring Korean disaster, gold...
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Bank hierarchy of pain could become a hydra
Who should lose money when banks fail? Talk of making deposits senior to bondholders might reassure savers rattled by the Cyprus bailout, and avoid bank runs. But it could lead to unhealthy arbitrage...
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Mafia and Cyprus may release IPO animal spirits
High debt didn’t deter buyers from Intelsat and SeaWorld stock sales. Now comes Qiwi, a Cyprus-domiciled, Russian payment system warning about risks from organized crime, the island’s bailout, money...
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How capital controls are prolonging Cypriots’ pain
After March’s brutal haircut on bank deposits, the island state’s economy will shrink this year whatever happens. But punitive controls on Cypriots’ access to their own money are making things worse....
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Cyprus bond swap is good publicity, bad economics
The creditor banks of Cyprus “voluntarily” exchanged 1 bln euros worth of sovereign debt at cheap rates. That lowers the bailout bill for the euro zone, but the burden falls unevenly on the country’s...
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Bank of Cyprus is bank of choice for EU über-bulls
Half the loans of the last major Cypriot bank are in arrears. Two-fifths of its funding comes from central banks. Yet Bank of Cyprus may still be able to secure foreign capital after the EU stress...
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Stock Talk: The Value of Media in Finance
I recently caught up with 50-year investment veteran Bill Kort to answer his questions regarding the media’s impact on the financial industry. After working for Kidder Peabody, A.G. Edwards, Wachovia,...
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Greek deposits fly between a rock and a hard place
One remedy to capital flight would be to give so-called emergency liquidity assistance to Greek banks. But heavy use of ELA could mean big losses if Greece left the euro. The alternative is to copy...
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Capital controls an unpalatable option for Athens
The risk of a Greek euro exit increases the pressure for capital controls. The policy did less harm than expected in the Cyprus crisis, and would buy time for Athens and its international creditors....
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