global economics

It's a great time to be an opposition in Europe. With sliding economic growth and unpopular bailouts, it's very easy to score points. And we all know that opposition leaders will say anything to get elected and that those in power will do anything to keep it. The euro is slipping here, down 40 pips...

Does anyone take the Merkel-Sarkozy dog and pony show seriously any more? Perception management is not a solution. For the past 18 months, every time reality threatens to intrude in Europe, Merkel and Sarkozy rush onto the global stage for a repeat performance of their dog-and-pony show. The...

As John Meynard Keynes once said, “When the facts change, I change my mind…” The gold market has amazingly sold off in what has been a global sell off that has hit metals fairly hard…both industrial and precious. The main driver seems to be a great amount of fear regarding the present state of...

The more a Greek default looks likely, the further into denial some in the financial establishment will go.  International Financing Review posits that a Greek default will not destroy the euro.  Perhaps a Greek default by itself will not be a sufficiently strong straw to break the camel's back. ...

Looks like all is well in the world again ;)  You can't leave your seat for even a few hours.  The S&P500 just went positive. Based on a proposed property tax, that should bring in 2B Euros a year in Greece, IMF officials believe the country will continue to get a lifeline and we can kick the...

The whole Greek tragedy is getting a bit tiring after two years of discussing it.  As mentioned Friday, it was leaked Germany was preparing to ring fence their banks from a Greek default, which was a change of direction after years of insisting no one in the EU would be allowed to fail.  Of course...

Failing to even meet market expectations, gross domestic product for the world's third largest economy declined in the second quarter. According to the Cabinet Office in Tokyo, Japanese growth contracted by a 2.1% annualized rate.   The newest reading on economic expansion fell below 1.9%...

For an economy still vulnerable to adverse shocks and where even the central bank is taking pot-shots at the inaction of government, the policy options look increasingly limited. The dollar has grown weary of sizeable quantitative response which most investors blindly accept as swelling the supply...