Unfortunately whilst the yield on Greek 1 year bonds is high at 730% (yes there’s no decimal point), it can hardly be described as good. When you have a 730% interest rate on your 1 year loan, its pretty safe to say that your chances of paying it back are zero. I understand why Greece …
Category Archive: Europe
Feb 09
Australian Government Bond Yields…still creeping up
When I saw the headline in the Market section of today’s Australian Financial Review I thought bond yields must have gone through the roof but the above chart shows that there ‘s only a relatively small increase compared to a couple of weeks ago. Markets had obviously priced in a rate decrease from the Reserve …
Jan 29
Australian Government Bond Yields…continue slight improvement
Source: RBA Its been a few weeks since I provided an update on the local government yield curve and consistent with the slight improvement in the sharemarket the Australian Government Bond Yield Curve has indicated a better outlook for the local economy. As the chart shows, since 6 January the yield curve has increased around …
Dec 19
A few too many ‘China Hard Landing’ stories for my comfort
I’ve read a few too many times how Australia is well positioned because of its exporting links to China and how this should help us escape any serious economic issues flowing out of Europe. Obviously our markets haven’t quite agreed with that with bond yields dropping massively over recent months and our equity market continuing …
Dec 11
Euro Summit…far from a resolution
I’m not completely familiar with all details coming out of the Euro summit a couple of days ago so I thought I’d cheat a little and point out some conclusions from a couple of my preferred econobloggers, Paul Krugman and Felix Salmon. Firstly Krugman… European stocks are up today, and I have no idea why. …
Nov 22
European Bond Yields
Europe is all that really matters to financial markets at the moment so thought I might re-produce this table of bond yields so they’re easy to access…they’re not that easy to find on Bloomberg without a subscription! [table id=1 /] Send article as PDF
Nov 10
Euro Breakup…very painful indeed
The reasons why the Euro is a failing concept have certainly been well documented and spoken about. Basically, without a fiscal union, monetary policy and a single currency are instruments that are too blunt to aid struggling countries when other countries are experiencing different levels of economic growth and/or inflation across Europe. For example, the German economy, which …
Nov 07
My day at the Portfolio Construction Academy
Last Friday I attended a day long program with around 80 researchers, financial advisers, and other financial professionals as part of a 5 day portfolio construction program run by Graham Rich over a 12 month period. Friday’s program was divided into three parts… Investment Fables Asset Allocation using Scenario Modelling Greece Each part went for …
Nov 03
Australian Government Bond Yields…more rate cuts to come?
Source: RBA In just 3 business days the yield curve has dropped down to where it was at the end of September where markets had experienced eight weeks of gloom and doom. Mind you, a lot happened in the three days to the end of yesterday…including the Greek’s putting significant doubt in the Euro rescue …
Oct 29
Australian Government Bond Yields…small improvement
The last month has shown a bit of a bounce-back in the sharemarkets but as the above yield curve indicates, so far its more of a dead cat bounce and there’s a long way to go. The yield curve is still negatively sloping to beyond two years indicating the market is expecting a few rate …