Euro Zone

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  ECB Offers Cheap Loans Again

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 29, 2012

  The European Central Bank once again offered cheap three-year loans to banks in the euro region, which quickly soaked up 529.5 billion euros ($712.2 billion) in funding. Analysts had expected the amount to total 470 billion euros.

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  ECB Rejects Greek Debt as Collateral

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 28, 2012

  Christian Schulz, an economist at Berenberg Bank in London, was quoted saying, “After the downgrade it was clear this was going to happen. The ECB isn’t going to make an exception to its rule on not accepting defaulted collateral ...”

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  Greece Launches Bond Swap

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 24, 2012

  Greece on Friday took the next step in a second bailout package after Parliament passed a law Thursday that requires all its bondholders to accept losses once a certain percentage of creditors have agreed.

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  PIMCO’s El-Erian: ‘No More IMF Aid to Europe’

  By John Sullivan, AdvisorOne  |  February 24, 2012

  Although Mohamed El-Erian had long advocated for aid to troubled Europe (with an obvious interest in mind), he wants strong strings attached to any lending, especially when it comes to the International Monetary Fund.

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  European Economy to Contract, Not Expand: EC

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 23, 2012

  Altering its forecast on the state of the European economy in 2012, the European Commission said that the euro area would shrink instead of expanding, largely because of Spain and Italy. The two countries are expected to be in for some difficult times as they cope with various economic woes.

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  Greek Debt Crisis Weighs on Banks

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 23, 2012

  Europe’s banks are tallying up the losses from Greek sovereign debt, and the picture is not a pretty one. Euro losses in the billions are taking a toll on earnings and banks are posting heavy hits in the midst of a need to find additional capital to meet new banking...

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  Greece to Force Cuts on Bondholders

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 22, 2012

  The bill, called Collective Action Clauses, will impose the debt swap of existing bonds for new, lower-value debt with lower coupon rates on Greece's creditors.

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  Eurozone Data Drive Markets Down

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 22, 2012

  For the second day in a row European stock prices retreated as economic data showed unexpected weakness for February, with services and manufacturing output falling.

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  Larger Bank of England Stimulus Was Overridden

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 22, 2012

  Two of the nine members of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee were outvoted at the committees last meeting when they sought to boost its stimulus to 75 billion pounds ($118 billion). The majority was concerned that such a move would cause alarm over the state of the economy...

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  Icelandic Economy Bounces Back From Brink

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  February 20, 2012

  The government's response to the 2008 default crisis has put the nation back on path of growth.