On Tuesday, Rick Santelli and I dissected the European Parliamentary elections. The results weren’t far off the projections as the GREEN PARTY was able to siphon off voters from the established left-leaning parties as they attracted more young voters than in previous EU-wide elections. There will be much to discuss as we head into the “horse trading” of Brussels politics but I stick to my insistence that the ECB needs the leadership of Jens Weidmann.
Posts Tagged ‘Green Party’
Notes From Underground: Welcome Back, Rick
May 28, 2019Notes From Underground: German Elections. The Sound of Complacency Shattering?
September 24, 2017I will start tonight’s BLOG with two very good comments from a long time reader and contributor GREEN AB who hails from Germany. Green has always provided great insight and though we don’t always agree I have great respect for his perspective. On Thursday he posted a very prescient forecast about today’s election and Sunday he followed with a post-election thoughts.
Notes From Underground: The Irish Government loses power as the GREENS pull the plug
January 23, 2011The weekend brought some political news from the EU. Brian Cowen gave up his leadership of the Fianna Fail Party but vowed to stay on as prime minister. However, the GREEN PARTY, who is the junior partner in the coalition, balked at the uncertainty caused by PM Cowen and pulled their support, which would force the dissolution of Parliament after this week’s vote on important budgetary matters. It is not as significant as it could be for elections were scheduled for March and the ruling party has been expected to suffer a total defeat. The most important outcome is that some of the leadership challenging Cowen within Fianna Fail will lose some precious time to secure their support within the party.
Notes From Underground: The Aussies have a hung Parliament
August 22, 2010The biggest news from the weekend is that the Aussie elections resulted in a hung parliament–the first in 70 years–as neither the Liberals nor Labor Party received the necessary 76 seats in the Lower House that would’ve given them the majority that was needed. The Liberals (Conservatives) are in front with 72 confirmed seats to the Labor’s 71, but both must seek a coalition. The GREEN PARTY controls one seat in the Lower House, making them a potential factor in any coalition, but if the Liberals can coax four independents they will be able to form a government.
Notes From Underground: Bad data from Philly and the jobless claims surge to more than 500,000
August 19, 2010The news on the economic front is tepid at best, which has given rise to the long end of the treasury market. As the BOND and NOTE futures continue to rally, the airwaves are full of talk about a bubble in the fixed income market. We don’t think a BUBBLE is forming, but what is happening is that many HEDGE funds overstayed their welcome on the 2/10 steepener. The steepener trade was a great trade as the FED pushed rates down on the front end to help aid the Banks in their profitability in a very uncertain credit market. (This was the same policy that the FED used back in the early nineties when the FED eased the pain of the banks, and Savings & Loan crisis. It created a very steep curve.) The FED did it again beginning in 2007 as the current DEBT crisis unfolded and the BOND VIGILANTES pushed the 2/10 curve out to more than 280 basis points, which provided banks with an easy profit center to help shore up its balance sheets. Of course bank profits came out of the pockets of anyone who had savings in short-term money instruments.