ECB Cuts Rates - All Eyes Now Turn to the Fed

Mike Shedlock | Nov 08, 2013

Here is a 10-minute Euro chart that shows wild swings following the Unexpected ECB Decision to lower rates yesterday.

10-minute Euro Chart



The Euro swung 2 cents vs. the US dollar but has now regained about half of the move.On a percentage

EU Official: Cyprus Was A Special Case, But…

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Big bank depositors could take a hit under planned European Union law if a bank fails, the EU’s economic affairs chief Olli Rehn said on Saturday, but noted that Cyprus’s bailout model was exceptional.

“Cyprus was a special case … but the upcoming directive assumes that investor and depositor liability will be carried out in case of a bank restructuring or a wind-down,” Rehn, the European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, said in a TV interview with Finland’s national broadcaster YLE.
“But there is a very clear hierarchy, at first the shareholders, then possibly the unprotected investments and deposits. However, the limit of 100,000 euros is sacred, deposits smaller than that are always safe.”
The European Commission is currently drafting a directive on bank safety which would incorporate the issue of investor liability in member states’ legislation.
To secure a 10 billion euro EU/IMF bailout last month, Cyprus forced heavy losses on wealthier depositors. Initially it had also pledged to introduce a levy on deposits of less than 100,000 euros – even though they are supposedly protected by state guarantees – before reneging in the face of

ECB Bond Purchases Timeline Looks `Optimistic'

Merkel Reins In Greek Exit Talk in Euro’s Decisive Phase

By Patrick Donahue - Aug 27, 2012 3:52 AM ET Chancellor Angela Merkel told officials in her coalition calling for a Greek exit from the euro to “weigh their words,” as she signaled a renewed determination to keep the single currency intact. Asked about comments by a party leader calling for Greece to leave the 17-nation currency, Merkel told ARD television that such comments were damaging as crisis fighting reaches a “decisive phase.” Alexander Dobrindt, general secretary of the governing Bavarian Christian Social Union, told Bild newspaper that Greece wouldn’t be part of the euro in 2013. “Everybody should weigh their words

Europe drawn back to its first problem: Greece

BRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) - The euro zone debt crisis was born in Greece. Nearly three years and two bailouts on, Europe must decide whether to give the country yet more help or cut it loose.

For all its complexities, Greece's problems essentially come down to three simple questions: Can the country return to growth? How big are its debts? And will the first ever be enough to pay off the second?

Put like that, one might wonder why policymakers have found a solution so elusive. But as ever, the devil is in the detail, and in Greece's case the details are devilishly difficult.

That is why ongoing efforts by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- together known as the 'troika' -- to work out Greece's long-term growth and debt reduction prospects are so critical.

Everyone from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ECB President Mario Draghi and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras -- who wants two more years to make the cuts demanded of him -- is nervously