capital controls

chinese stock market

The umpteenth Chinese bubble

BEIJING | July 10, 2015 | By Alberto Lebrón | Can you imagine a country capable of losing, in just three weeks, nearly five times what Greece owes the Troika? Chinese stock markets have lost ten billion yuan. In euros, that is almost one and a half billion, more than Spain’s entire GDP. 


A EU flag

Capital controls: Greece and Iceland

LONDON | June 30, 2015 | By Sigrún Davídsdóttir | Now that Greece has controls on outflow from banks, capital controls, many commentators are comparing Greece to Iceland. There is little comparison to be made between the nature of capital controls in these two countries. The controls are different in every respect except in the name. Iceland had, what I would call, real capital controls – Greece has control on outflow from banks. With the names changed, the difference is clear.


hands tiedTC

Cyprus and Iceland: a tale of two capital controls

LONDON | March 6, 2015 | By Sigrún DavídsdóttirBoth in Cyprus and Iceland foreign funds flowed into the islands, in the end forcing the government to make use of extreme measures when the tide turned. These measures are normally called ‘capital controls’ which in these two cases hides the fact that the measures used are fundamentally different in all but name. In Iceland, the controls contain the effect of lacking foreign currency, effectively a balance of payment problem – in Cyprus, the controls were a way of defending banks against bank run, i.e. preventing depositors to move funds freely.