Did Estonia slide in to the Euro with some deft footwork?

AOK - The following article highlights a recent sharp jump in Estonia's inflation rate ,which had previously declined enough to make Estonia an easy candidate to be confirmed for Euro adoption in May 2009, when other Euro members in the periphery were shaking faith. But maybe there was some quite well-timed tax & subsidy changes implemented in this small economy to make it all look good …

Canada's Debt Reduction is not an applicable model for the US today

AOK - A quick article with two great graphics; basically the message to the US and other countries looking to the Canadian mid-90's debt reduction for guidance is: has to be at the right time and with space for monetary policy offsets, neither of which applies to the developed country situations today.

Where the foreclosure process mess may be headed - #1 of no doubt many

AOK - This is rapidly revealing itself to be another major "intricacies of the financial system interconnectedness" issue - the end impacts are less dramatic than no doubt many would wish (no Virginia your mortgage debt did not just go away) but the rippling impacts on investment funds owning now-unsecured MBA paper originated by now-bankrupt entities will drag on and out and create a huge bloody mess for expensive lawyers to sort out. And there really doesn't at this time seem to be any quick fix, not even from the government, at least not for non-conforming (e.g. non-GSE) pools. I'll try to restrain my enthusiasm and only blog up notable plot turns in this opera-quality saga ...