Category Archives: Globalization

Town May Seize Factory to Prevent Dismantling by Vengeful Owner

This story illustrates how far some companies are willing to go to preserve their bottom lines and assert their right to operate in an unfettered manner, even when that includes breaking the law and violating contracts. Huffington Post, via its daily political newsletter Huffington Post Hill, does some additional reporting on the very peculiar case […]

Econoparody: The Dollar and Its Diving

From the folks at Versus. Enjoy!

South Korea Scrambles Jets in Retaliation for North Korean Fire on Populated Area

I was going to relegate this story to Links, but it is escalating before my eyes. North Korea is known for saber rattling and firing rockets that conveniently fall in the ocean when the verging-on-starvation nation needs a handout. But even at the outset, its latest move looked uncomfortably more belligerent than its usual ploys. […]

Ring a Ring o’ Roses

Some geographical and economic clarifications from politicians, officials and commentators: 1. Spain is not Greece – Elena Salgado, Spanish Finance Minister, ~February, 2010. 2. Portugal is not Greece – The Economist, 22nd April, 2010. 3. Greece is not Ireland – George Papaconstantinou, Greek Finance Minister, 8th November 2010. 4. Spain is neither Ireland nor Portugal […]

Noose Closing on Ireland

We indicated yesterday that the Irish government had been in the process of trying to steer an inevitable rescue operation towards salvaging its bloated, cancerous banking system rather than a government bailout, which would not only further reduce national sovereignty but also saddle Erin with debt that could not be restructured. Stratfor describes how the […]

Ireland Brinksmanship with the EU: Slow Motion Bank Run May Be Giving Government Leverage

In negotiations, understanding where you have leverage relative to your counterpart is key. Ireland appears to be engaged in a quiet staredown with the EU, evidently with the objective of securing a rescue of its banks rather than its government. In case you managed to miss it, Ireland is in the midst of a long […]

Auerback: G20 Post-mortem – “Chimerica” has been a Chimera

By Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist, hedge fund manager, and Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute who writes at New Deal 2.0. A disastrous trade war may be coming our way. There has been a considerable amount of discussion about current account imbalances in light of last weekend’s failed G20 summit. For the most part, […]

Alford: The Fed Tests The Thesis That Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right, But Three Do

By Richard Alford, a former economist at the New York Fed. Since then, he has worked in the financial industry as a trading floor economist and strategist on both the sell side and the buy side. In reaction to the OPEC-engineered oil price spikes of the 1970s, which economists would depict as external negative supply […]

Auerback: How Do You Say “Hypocrite” in German?

By Marshall Auerback, a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and a market analyst and commentator; first posted at New Deal 2.0. Before throwing rocks at the U.S. for its spending, Germany should take a look at its own crumbling glass house. Okay, I did a few years of German language study, so I know […]

Costello: On Trade

By Joe Costello, former communications director for Jerry Brown’s 1992 presidential campaign and senior adviser for Howard Dean’s effort in 2004; first posted at Archein “You going to liberate us girls from male, white, corporate oppression?” Tell em like it is, Fear of a Female Planet Fear baby Let everybody know — Sonic Youth When […]

QE2: Bernanke Cuts Geithner Off at the Knees

The Fed’s announcement of $600 billion of intermediate and long Treasury purchase, informally dubbed QE2, teed off a peppy rally in stocks, and led to further weakening of the dollar. These trends were already well in motion thanks to the central bank’s winks and nods that it was going to embark on another round of […]

Guest Post: Currency Wars and Emerging Markets

By Richard Portes, Professor of Economics at London Business School and President of CEPR, first posted at VoxEU The threat of a currency war between the US and China is one of the main concerns for the G20 ahead of this month’s meeting in Seoul. This column say that while policymakers appear to grasp some […]

Is the US Taking Too Much of the Brunt of the Crisis Aftermath?

Before readers throw brickbats at me, I’m just acting as the messenger for two articles, one by Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff, the other by the Financial Times’ Martin Wolf. Each points out that the US is taking a proportionately bigger hit than other big economies post crisis, particularly in terms of unemployment. And this is actually […]

Germany Draws Line in the Sand on Eurozone Bailouts, Insists Bondholders Take Pain

The contradictions of the Eurobailout mechanism were bound to be resolved at some point, smoke and mirror and insufficient firepower relative to the magnitude of the problem will only take you so far. The eurozone rescue operation, although it looked like it was aimed at so called Club Med, aka PIGS sovereigns (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, […]

Eurozone Worries Rising?

There are more news sightings that point to heightened worry about Eurozone sovereign debt/bank woes. A spate from Bloomberg this AM. Normally, when I can come close to doing one-stop shopping on relevant topics on Bloomberg, it’s a sign of anxiety. The first is “EU Bows to German Call for Permanent Debt Mechanism.” This piece […]