For a nation that is home to just over 11 million people and the world’s 33rd largest economy, Greece sure has had a significant impact on global equity markets over the last year. Mounting government debt and declining tax revenues have forced Greek officials to take drastic measures to avoid defaulting on obligations, and sparked concerns of a widespread crisis. With neighboring countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) coming to Greece’s aid, many investors thought the situation had been sufficiently resolved. But several rounds of austerity packages and bailout proposals later, Greece’s future remains far from certain. While the current proposal supplies funds required to pay back bonds coming due this month, it is based on assumptions that Greece will be able to borrow again from capital markets in late 2011. Some think that timeline is overly aggressive, setting Greece’s neighbors up for more challenging decisions next year. [click to continue…]
The tiny European nation of Greece has had a huge impact on the global economy in 2010, as its budget deficit spiraled out of control until ultimately reaching unmanageable levels earlier this year. After last week’s announcement that Greece was going to tap an aid package from other euro zone members (as well as the [...]
The financial sector was one of the hardest areas of the economy in 2008 and early 2009, as years of excessive risk taking finally resulted in a meltdown that spurred several unprecedented emergency measures and set off one of the worst recessions in a generation. Since bottoming out last March, however, financials have surged higher, [...]
Greece’s ongoing budget woes have been one of the major stories of 2010, sending shock waves throughout the euro zone (and global equity markets in general). After months of back-and-forth, some “doomsday” predictions, and even death sentences for the euro zone common currency, recent developments suggest that the risk may finally be abating for the [...]
After adding more than 100 new funds and taking in nearly $120 billion in cash in 2009, it seemed that the ETF industry would be hard-pressed to match that impressive pace in 2010. But an action-packed January that saw more than a dozen new funds, setting a pace that would shatter last year’s expansion. The [...]
iShares, the San Francisco-based issuer behind nearly 200 ETFs, announced today the launch of five new international sector funds. The five funds, which include four financial ETFs and one materials ETF, expands iShares offerings in the international segment allowing investors to exploit regional differences in sector performance. The new ETFs include the MSCI ACWI ex [...]
