<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Obama pressed to open emergency oil stocks The Obama administration is coming under growing pressure to cool petrol prices by releasing emergency stocks of oil. However, critics say this would be the wrong response to the wrong problem at the wrong time. The oil price… Continue reading The Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Oil Prices
The Wall Street Journal – Big Bond Funds Diverge On Emerging Markets Some of the world’s biggest bond-fund managers disagree on the future of the $2.3 trillion market for emerging-market debt, continuing the debate over the European crisis’s impact on global growth. Dialing back exposure to emerging-market bonds are Legg Mason Inc.’s Western Asset and… Continue reading Fixed Income Funds
The New York Times – Europe Gets Ready for Round 2 of Bank Loans Central bankers do not like anyone to see them sweat, much less panic. But last November the temperature was clearly rising inside the battleship-gray office tower in downtown Frankfurt that houses the European Central Bank. European commercial banks were unable to… Continue reading Coming This Week, LTRO2
Barron’s – Gene Epstein: Is the Fed a Failure? Has the Federal Reserve Bank served its purpose? An economics professor suggests it hasn’t, and that its 100th birthday, next year, should be its last Only a handful of heretics have dared to ask about the job the Fed has done on the economy. One is… Continue reading Is The Federal Reserve A Failure?
The Financial Times – Athens told to change spending and taxes European creditor countries are demanding 38 specific changes in Greek tax, spending and wage policies by the end of this month and have laid out extra reforms that amount to micromanaging the country’s government for two years, according to documents obtained by the Financial… Continue reading Greece
The Telegraph (UK) – Osborne: UK has run out of money The Government ‘has run out of money’ and cannot afford debt-fuelled tax cuts or extra spending, George Osborne has admitted. In a stark warning ahead of next month’s Budget, the Chancellor said there was little the Coalition could do to stimulate the economy. Mr… Continue reading Is The UK Broke?
Bloomberg.com – Germany’s Friedrich Urges Greek Exit From Euro, Spiegel Says German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said Greece would have better chances of overhauling its economy and restoring growth if it left the euro area, Der Spiegel said, citing an interview. Friedrich, a member of the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union that’s allied with German Chancellor… Continue reading Germany and the G-20
The Wall Street Journal – Whodunit at MF Global New evidence casts doubt on Jon Corzine’s testimony Almost four months after the bankruptcy of futures giant MF Global, clients still haven’t been made whole and still haven’t been told what happened to $1.6 billion of their money. Nor has anyone been charged with civil or… Continue reading Jon Corzine
None Today
<Click on chart for larger image> Real-Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Atlanta Fed Survey Finds Long-Term Inflation Worry But a new survey of local businesses conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, released Wednesday, suggests South-Eastern region business leaders may not share the Fed’s confidence about future inflation. The survey of 168 firms found… Continue reading Will Inflation Become A Problem?
Bloomberg.com – S&P 500 Gets 9% Cheaper as Profit Restores $3.2 Trillion Profits in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index are rising faster than its price, leaving the gauge 9 percent cheaper than it was in April even after American equities climbed within 0.1 percent of last year’s high. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent… Continue reading Rising Risk Markets Despite No Earnings Growth
<Click on chart for larger image> The Hill – Payroll tax cut agreement pushes nation closer to hitting debt ceiling The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that in the short term, the payroll package will add $101 billion to the deficit, which effectively erases a month of wiggle room under the $16.394 trillion debt cap.… Continue reading Is A Debt Ceiling Fight Coming Before The Election?