Or FT Alphaville does (maybe not):
Edwards: Going bust and ECB QE
What’s come over über bear Albert Edwards? The day after Europe’s leaders reached a deal (of sorts) to tackle the region’s sovereign debt crisis the SG strategist is relatively chipper:
I have minimal confidence that governments can turn this around within the confines of the eurozone project. You might be surprised though that I feel more bullish! Why? Both Dylan [Grice] and I have come to the view that the ECB will be forced, by events, to monetise debt in the GIIPS and beyond. And if investors believe the governments in Spain and Italy are bust, then Germany, France, and not forgetting the UK and US, are far, far worse.We did say ‘relatively’.
Edwards reckons the looming threat of a euro break-up will force the ECB to lose its “monetary virginity”, a phrase coined by economist Paul de Grauwe, and begin printing money. Rudolf Von Havenstein, president of the Reichsbank in the early 1920s, who kept printing because he was scared of the mass unemployment that would result if he stopped, should serve as a fitting precedent....MUCH MORE
*Société Générale's Albert Edwards Upbeat, Almost Chipper: See's Humanity Approaching Broad Sunlit Uplands (Nov. 17, 2010)
