Greece’s difficulty in putting together a government is weighing on euro sentiment. Although Belgium went without a government for more than a year, Greece does not have that luxury. The Troika is set to...
The electoral outcome in Greece appears to be producing a fragmented parliament and will likely increase the platform for those parties that are more hostile to additional austerity and perhaps even the euro zone...
The week ahead will be eventful. There will be something for everyone. There is plenty of economic data. There are a few central bank meetings and there of course will be a heavy dose of politics. Politics is...
The poltical realist in us says the golden rule is „he with the gold makes the rules”. Germany has the gold (financial prowess) so it sets the rules as the „first among equals” in the euro zone. It is...
China announced earlier today (April 14) that it will widen the allowable band the US dollar trades in against the Chinese yuan or renminbi. The new band is 1% from the official fixing rather than the 0.5% that band that...
The LTRO’s provided more than 1 trillion euros of liquidity. Spanish and Italian banks bought large amounts of sovereign bonds. Recent reports indicate in the Nov-Feb period, Spanish banks bought about 68 bln euros of...
The controversy surrounding demise of Bo Xilai in China has sparked much debate and Chinese politics. There seems to be a misunderstanding about the way a one party state works. I grew up in Chicago. The...
The Danish central bank will borrow a page from the ECB’s playbook and provide 3-year loans to local banks next week (March 30). Denmark’s banks (~120) have been largely locked out of the funding markets since...
Yesterday, the euro zone reported that its January current account surplus of 4.5 bln euros was largest in almost five years. The December surplus was revised to 3.4 bln from 2.0 bln initially. The monthly swings of the time...
I am in Asia for the next ten days to, among other things, give a speech at the Investment Management Association of Singapore’s annual conference on March 14th. While I am gone my brilliant webmaster is in...