In the runup to the global financial crisis, George Magnus, who was then chief economist at UBS, was one of the most insightful commentators and was early to call how bad things might get. He’s back to sound alarms about the emerging markets turmoil.
Read more...A brief surge of optimism, in the form of a short-lived rally in the belegured Turkish Lira and South African rand after their central banks raised interest rates to try to halt the plunge in currency values, has fizzled. And the Fed reducing its dosage of market tonic, in the form of QE, only soured investors’ already bad mood.
Read more...That is the question today. Let’s first ask markets.
Read more...The European Union is riddled with fatal flaws and defects. Chief among them is the single currency which, rather than serving as the Union’s springboard to global dominance, could well be its ultimate undoing.
Read more...Yves here. I thought this essay on money was useful in and of itself, and it also contains a useful primer on the views of major schools of thought in orthodox economics.
Read more...Yves here. This post makes a deceptively simple but important observation. Despite claims otherwise, central banks are giving top priority to interest rate stability, over that of other mandates they have been given explicitly, such as the health of the financial system, price stability, and full employment. This is further confirmation of the idea that central banks are desperate to keep asset prices aloft.
Read more...Iceland is widely portrayed as a post-bubble success story, but the reality is more conplex.
Read more...Yves here. This is an important post by Rob Parenteau which outlines a viable plan for subject nations austerity-afflicted Eurozone countries with reasonably-well-functioning tax bureaucracies to escape their downspiral.
Read more...Yves here. Yanis makes a couple of observations which won’t sit well with digital currency enthusiasts.
Read more...A dubious FX trading software operation closes down in New Zealand and sets up shop in Ireland.
Read more...Yves here. In an interview with Edward Geelhoed, Varoufakis gives an urgent, sobering picture of the conditions in Greece, which contrasts dramatically with the claims made by Eurozone politicians.
Read more...In the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, most European governments allowed the automatic stabilisers to kick in and implemented some mild discretionary measures, despite the strictures of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). But it was not long before the siren calls for “fiscal consolidation” arose…
Read more...In this video, Steve Keen reviews the history of Keynes’ proposed international currency, Bancor, and why it failed to come to fruition at Bretton Woods.
Read more...France’s government is struggling to stay relevant….and Groupe BPCE may have provided an answer by telling Germany to pay up or exit the Eurozone.
Read more...Our deficit hysterians love to raise the specter of China.
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