Sober Look

Once again, a great deal of confusion surrounds the European Central Bank's current policy objectives as well as the nearterm action e...

The Eurozone banks' longer-term borrowings from the central banking system continue to decline, a trend that many economists view as a...

In cutting through some of the media noise on today's action form the ECB, here are a few points worth discussing. 1. The negative r...

It may be something symbolic such as a small rate cut or possibly a more substantial move such as a new LTRO program ( discussed here ), ...

The Euro area inflation indicators are pushing into dangerous territory. The core CPI measure in particular is trending sharply lower. The...

In spite of a number of positive economic indicators out of the Eurozone ( see example ), credit growth remains the area's Achilles...

As discussed back in September ( see post ), the ECB may be forced to take further action in an attempt to reignite the area's recover...

Over the past year, the ECB's (Eurosystem's) consolidated balance sheet declined roughly three quarters of a trillion euros. As di...

The euro area banking system excess reserves are continuing to decline - touching the lowest level since 2011. Just to put this in p...

The decline in euro area banks' excess reserves has been quite spectacular. Excess reserve levels are back to 2011 levels. Source:...

In the past couple of years we've seen a great deal of focus on the so-called "collateral scarcity" problem. The new regulat...

As European banks find some private sources of capital to fund themselves, they continue to repay their ECB loans - particularly in the 3y...

Spain's banking system continues to struggle, with Bankia reporting more losses and tapping the government's bailout vehicle. Th...

There is concern among some Eurozone banks that the ECB may push the deposit rates on excess reserves into negative territory next year. I...