Ukraine has joined the growing list of Eastern European countries who have now entered some form of “consultation” process with the IMF and today formally requested “systemic support” and “active cooperation” from the fund. The government will meet with IMF representatives in the “coming days,” according to a statement from First Deputy [...]

You do not always need to write long essays to explain the current financial crisis, the following video sums it all up quite well in a few minutes. Money quote: “It’s not us that will suffer, it is your pension fund.” BTW, this was originally broadcast exactly one year ago. Some of you may already [...]

Well, the Icelandic authorities seem to have bitten the bullet, and after some coming and going agreed to accept assistance from the IMF. An IMF mission is on the island preparing a plan which will then be put to the Icelandic government (protocols here are important). Under negotiation are the terms of any possible loan. [...]

To be fair, Paul Krugman was a pretty darn good economist even before he took up blogging…

Well, Europe’s leaders have finally bitten the bullet. Faced with what IMF head Dominique Strauss Kahn warned could turn into a global financial meltdown, our leaders have risen to the challenge, at least to a certain extent. The details of what has been agreed continue to remain vague, but obviously I think it is a [...]

Well, these are indeed troubled times. According to the latest news to come off the Reuters wires the International Monetary Fund has announced its readiness to offer financial and technical help to Hungary, effectively stepping in and providing support for an EU member state in difficulty at a time when the EU institutional and [...]

So to avoid the awkwardness of a Eurozone summit in Paris excluding Europe’s biggest financial centre, Gordon Brown went to Paris before the meeting and it sounded like he and Nicolas Sarkozy were on the same wavelength about how bailouts should work.  One section of the Elysée summit declaration (version fr) says

[...]

The Nation has a cracking, snarky and sharply reported, story out about Rick Davies (John McCain’s campaign manager) and his role in the run-up to Montenegrin independence. Read the whole thing, as they say. What struck me about it was first that AFOE had a damn good little controversy of its own about the same [...]

The medium-term outlook (for Ukraine) is sensitive to both external developments and policy responses. A benign external environment, featuring even higher steel prices and additional FDI, could produce growth in excess of 7 percent, but inflation could prove hard to control under a peg. Under an adverse external outlook, by contrast, the peg could lead [...]

Montenegro and Macedonia recognized Kosovo yesterday. Coincidentally, this raises the number of countries recognizing to exactly 50.
Macedonia and Montenegro are small countries, but they have outsized importance because (1) they’re neighbors of both Serbia and Kosovo, (2) they’re EU-members-to-be, and (3) they’re former Yugoslav Republics. So while this is no surprise, it’s still [...]