Credit where credit is due, part deux

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, like yours truly, is impressed with the level of cooperation in Europe at a time of maximum stress. This is a macro support for the euro that few would have anticipated.

AEP warns developing countries risk going bust

The rapidly spreading global economic crisis risks dragging emerging economies into bankruptcy, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard warns. Strategically important countries like Pakistan and Ukraine are at risk he reports.

Makes me wonder whether the newly rich Soviet Un…err, Russia, might try and take advantage of the situation.

AEP: Clock ticking for the euro

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is far less hyperbolic that usual in his Thursday column but he does ask one explosive question: Will there still be a euro by Christmas? He implies not unless the Germans are willing to do cross-border bailouts, something they have thus far vehemently opposed.

Ambrose is mad as hell and not gonna take it any more

AEP unloads once more on the ECB, and European policymakers in general, for being slow at the switch. The market is way ahead of him this time…

AEP takes euros to task for premature gloating

My favorite bomb-throwing columnist, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has harsh words (my favorite kind!) for the European politicians who blamed “American greed” for the banking crisis which just days later claimed a half-dozen European victims.

AEP is strangely subdued today

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard sees ECB handcuffed in reaction to the wave of financial sector chaos. Perhaps M. Trichet will enlighten us at Noon NY time when he accepts the European Banker of the Year Award in Frankfurt.

Another ray of sunshine from Ambrose

The ever-readable–if hyperbolic– Ambrose Evans-Pritchard warns that the toxic debt will take years to work their way out of the global banking system and that Europe has no mechanisms for joining the US in soaking up some of the excesses.

AEP comes out with both barrels blazing

Vintage Ambrose. Everyone’s an idiot but him. Love him or hate him, his column is always chock full of interesting factoids. My favorite from this one follows:

Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas, says the US debt scare is vastly overblown. America’s total government debt is 48pc of GDP on IMF measures, compared to 57pc for Germany, 94pc for Japan and 108pc for Italy.

There is also this gem:

“We think the next phase of this crisis is going to be a repatriation story as American investors bring their money back from frontier markets. The US broker dealers were 60 times leveraged and now they need to take assets back onto dollar balance sheets.”

Maybe someone should send Hans a link to the Briefs…

It’s always darkest before it goes completely black…

My favorite columnist, the esteemed Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph spends about 2/3rds of Tuesday’s column sounding downright upbeat. I found myself asking “did they put the right byline on this column?” Finally, the gloomy payoff. The Us is headed for depression (even though a year into the credit crunch GDP has yet to turn negative), home prices are set to fall 4,000% and a variety of other catastrophes. The bright side? The US and UK are going to hell faster than the US.  Once again, Ambrose is singing our song:

So no, this painful ordeal is far from over. We are not witnessing a dollar rally so much as a collapse in European and commodity currencies. The race to the bottom has begun in earnest.