S.O.S-Spain
Al Jazeera on the Spanish messy situation.
Eurozone finance ministers will hold a conference call on Spain’s expected request for aid to shore up its distressed banking sector, European government sources said.
The eurozone greenlighted the “holding of a teleconference of the Eurogroup on Saturday at 4:00pm (1400 GMT) to agree a declaration on Spain’s intention to request aid and the Eurogroup’s commitment to granting it,” a European government source said.
The move came as the International Monetary Fund released a report on Friday which estimated that Spanish banks need at least a 40bn euro (about $50bn) capital injection following a stress test it performed on the country’s financial sector.
“Reports we are getting from various sources suggest that there will be this conference call from Brussels between the 17 finance ministers of the eurozone, the so-called eurogroup. The Spanish finace minister will be among them,” said Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Madrid on Saturday
“What we believe they will be discussing is the sort of size and shape of the terms attached to a possible bailout for Spain, to inject fresh capital into its banks.
“All that Madrid has to do is ask for that bailout, under the rules of course they have to ask for a bailout to be put into action. (Full article here).
Video below.
Calm Markets `Before They Go Haywire’
G Papp, partly responsible for the Greek Drama urges world leaders to decide urgently on Spain and the rest of Europe in order to calm world markets.
Video below.
Fed’s Balance Sheet
Guest post by Doug Short.
Pop Quiz! Without recourse to your text, your notes or a Google search, what line item is the largest asset on Uncle Sam’s balance sheet?
| A) U.S. Official Reserve Assets B) Total Mortgages C) Taxes Receivable D) Student Loans |
The correct answer, as of the latest Flow of Funds report for Q1 2012, is … Student Loans.
The rapid growth in student debt has been a frequent topic in the financial press. One stunning chart that caught my attention illustrated the rapid growth in federal loans to students since the onset of the great recession. Here is a chart based on data from the Flow of Funds Table L.105, which shows the Federal Government’s assets and liabilities.
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