Stephen Jen, currency chief at Morgan Stanley, said Eastern Europe has borrowed $1.7 trillion abroad, much on short-term maturities. It must repay – or roll over – $400bn this year, equal to a third of the region’s GDP. Good luck. The credit window has slammed shut.

Not even Russia can easily cover the $500bn dollar debts of its oligarchs while oil remains near $33 a barrel. The budget is based on Urals crude at $95. Russia has bled 36pc of its foreign reserves since August defending the rouble.

“This is the largest run on a currency in history,” said Mr Jen.

Courtesy of Mish. He of course explains it better than I ever could, but stuff like this really needs to be known by everybody. This isn’t your run of the mill moonshine doused bong swilling crackpot blogging conspiracy theories, this is the currency expert at Morgan Stanley stating these figures. If that doesn’t scare you nothing will.

In lighter news, I think I may have gotten Loki to sit still for a 3 exposure HDR a couple times… so for the first time ever I will have HDR KITTIES!

Tags: there will be cake

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 17:44.