Cyprus To Ask For Bailout?

It appears that Cyprus is to ask the EU for a bailout.

The EU has stated that Cyprus hasn't asked for a bailout, but that is what the EU said about Spain last Friday.

Read More

Ten Countries Most Likely To Default

Bottom 10 Sovereign CDS ranked by spread at end-March 2012

Name    5Y Spread   Change   % Change   Feb ranking
Cyprus     1183             4              0%             N/A
Portugal   1075          -90            -8%             2 (0)
Ukraine      859         101            13%            4 (+1)
Argentina   809           32             4%             3 (-1)
Venezuela  712          -13            -2%             5 (0)
Ireland       572          -27            -5%             6 (0)
Hungary    546            50           10%             8 (+1)
Egypt        544           -52            -9%              7 (-1)
Lebanon    459          -17            -4%               9 (0)
Spain         428           55            15%             16 (+6)

Source markit

Greece is not on the list, because it has already defaulted.

Read More

For Fuchs Sake! II

Standard and Poor’s have cut France’s AAA rating, and have also reduced the ratings of Italy, Spain, Portugal (now consigned to junk status) and Cyprus by two notches.

Austria, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia had their ratings lowered by one notch.

Needless to say these downgrades have not gone down well with the political "elite" of Europe.

Michael Fuchs, a member of the Christian Democrats (who earlier this week said the Greece had no intention of paying its debts), said that Standard and Poor’s was “playing politics” and stated that S&P should downgrade Britain as well:


“If the agency downgrades France, it should also downgrade Britain in order to be consistent.”

How exactly would that help restore confidence in the Euro experiment?

Read More

Distract The People With a Small War

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou called for calm over Cyprus in a phone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, a Greek government spokesman said, as regional tensions rise over oil exploration.

Sourece Reuters.

This will end badly.

Read More

Downfall - Cyprus Hits Point of No Return

Cyprus has barely managed to sell Euro23.1M of government bonds.



It achieved a "bid to cover ratio" of 1 (ie there were only just enough "punters" prepared to buy them), at a yield of 7% (the last auction in June achieved a yield of 6.25%).



A yield of 7% is "the point of no return"; it is the level at which Greece, Portugal and Ireland went with their begging bowls to others asking for a bailout.



Why is Cyprus having problems?



Around 40% of its largest banks' exposures are to Greece.



Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel from deep within her bunker in Berlin issued a statement to ZDF (again rejecting Eurobonds):



"It will not be possible to solve the current crisis with euro bonds.



Politicians can’t and won’t simply run after the markets.



The markets want to force us to do certain things.



That we won’t do."



One can only conclude that she has either totally lost touch with reality, or is intent on deliberately destroying the Eurozone.

Read More