Lawrence McDonald

Economic, political and market dates to watch from across Europe as governments and financial institutions deal with the ongoing European debt crisis. Courtesy of DC Tripwire  15th February:                   Spain to announce plans for restructuring banking sector 15th February:                   Portugal [...]

Article by Paul Dobson, Emma Charlton and Lucy Meakin, Bloomberg European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s unlimited three-year loans to euro-region banks may give Italy and Spain only temporary respite from the region’s debt crisis. Two-year Italian and Spanish notes rallied since the ECB said Dec. 8 that it planned to offer as much liquidity as [...]

Article By Patrick Donahue, Rainer Buergin, Josiane Kremer, John Fraher, Bloomber European officials said the euro region’s temporary bailout facility has enough funds to deal with the sovereign debt crisis after losing its top credit rating at Standard & Poor’s. “The EFSF has sufficient means to fulfil its commitments under current and potential future adjustment [...]

Former Lehman Brothers V.P. Larry McDonald on the S&P downgrades in Europe and their impact on U.S. banks. Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com

Article By CNBC.com and Reuters Standard & Poor’s has downgraded France’s credit rating, French TV reported Friday, while several other euro zone countries face the same fate later in the day, according to reports. Germany and the Netherlands aren’t among those facing a downgrade, a senior euro zone government source told Reuters. Another source confirmed [...]

Article By Natasha Brereton-Fukui, WSJ From Brazil to Indonesia to the Philippines, emerging-market countries are pouring into the bond market, taking advantage of soaring investor demand to sell debt at record-low interest rates. Governments and government-linked organizations in the developing world have sold $11.3 billion in bonds in the first two weeks of the year, [...]

Article By Jeff Black and Jana Randow, Bloomberg Germany may be on the brink of recession after the sovereign debt crisis caused the economy to contract in the final quarter of 2011. Europe’s largest economy shrank “roughly” 0.25 percent in the fourth quarter from the third, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today in an [...]

Article By Edward Krudy, Reuters Familiar themes for those who lived through 2011, and investors should be ready to revisit them next year. With a spiraling debt crisis in Europe, political upheaval around the world, and crumbling creditworthiness in major industrial nations, 2011 was a tough year to know where to invest. 2012 is unlikely [...]

Article By Paul Dobson, Bloomberg Italian 10-year bonds fell, pushing yields toward the highest this month, after the nation raised less than its maximum target at an auction of debt due between 2014 and 2022. Portuguese and Spanish securities also declined and the euro weakened to a 15-month low against the dollar after Italy agreed [...]

Article By Chiara Vasarri, Bloomberg Italy will sell as much as $11 billion in bonds today, one day after borrowing costs plunged at an auction of shorter-maturity debt. The Treasury in Rome will sell bonds maturing in 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2022. Italy yesterday sold 9 billion euros of 179-day bills to yield 3.251 percent, down [...]