On 15 September 2008, Lehman Brothers, a “bulge bracket” investment bank, filed for bankruptcy. That should have been no big deal. The failure of a single, poorly run institution should have had no broader effect on the domestic US economy, let alone the global one. Things didn’t pan out that way. Lehman Brothers was the […]

  The return of the undead Berlusconi to return to Italian politics. Mario Monti to quit (and return to Goldman Sachs for a annual honorarium of $50,000,000). The Italian long bond to go to 600 basis points over bunds. Investors to notice that Italy is still in the position of having massive debts and a […]

Earlier this week, on 21 May, the Financial Times ran a short piece which opened thus: ‘There has been no official announcement. No terms or conditions have been disclosed. But Greece’s banking system is being propped up by an estimated €100bn or so of emergency liquidity provided by the country’s central bank – approved secretly […]