The Financial Times – Gillian Tett: Lonely CEOs flee hostile world for self-help group What is the point of Davos? That is the question many of the 2,500 official delegates to this year’s World Economic Forum might ask as they flock to the Swiss ski resort. Not to mention the rest of the world asking… Continue reading Davos Is Coming, Hide The Women And Children!
Comment All next week on PBS Making $ense with Paul Solman, country Cooner Merle Hazard will be performing. Merle has written several new songs about the European debt problems: Monday: Spain Tuesday: Ireland Wednesday: Italy Thursday: Germany Friday: Greece In his day job Hazard is known as Nashville investment advisor Jon Shayne. To get you… Continue reading Cartoons
Over the past year net purchases of U.S. Treasury notes and bonds by the United Kingdom has risen dramatically. In fact, in the 12 months ending November 2010 the U.K.’s $343.77 billion of net purchases of U.S. Treasuries accounted for over 97% of all European net Treasury purchases and 47% of all foreign net Treasury… Continue reading Don’t Read Too Much Into The U.K.’s Rising Holdings Of U.S. Treasuries
The Financial Times – Was it all just a bad dream? Was it all just a bad dream? Strip out the banks, and share prices suggest the past three years never happened. On Tuesday, the FTSE 250 index of midsized British companies reached its highest since July 2007, just before the credit crunch hit. Its… Continue reading What If We Were To Strip Financial Stocks Out Of The S&P 500?
The New York Times – Path Is Sought for States to Escape Debt Burdens Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers. Unlike cities, the states are barred… Continue reading Are Muni Bankruptcies Coming?
The Wall Street Journal – ECB Flags Risks of Higher Prices The European Central Bank warned that commodity and food prices could push euro-zone inflation higher, the latest sign of concern from officials about the buildup of price pressures in the currency bloc. Inflation risks are mounting in the bloc’s largest economy, Germany, where industrial… Continue reading Inflation Everywhere?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – US mortgage bonds soar on recovery hopes The prices of US bonds backed by loans for office blocks, shopping centres and hotels are soaring, signalling growing optimism among investors that the country’s commercial real estate sector is on the road to recovery. Commercial mortgage-backed securities… Continue reading Mortgages
The Wall Street Journal – European Governments Weigh Bond Buybacks European governments are considering ways to reduce the debt burdens of struggling euro-zone countries such as Greece through bond buybacks, as part of broader measures aimed at ending the crisis of confidence in Europe’s common currency. The buyback ideas being discussed would allow Greece or… Continue reading European Bonds
The Economist – China’s Currency: The rise of the redback China will have to open its financial market if it wants the yuan to rival the dollar Mr Hu is right that America’s currency punches above its economy’s diminished weight in the world. America’s share of global output (20%), trade (only 11%) and even financial… Continue reading China
The New York Times – DAVID LEONHARDT: The Deficit We Want We have come to believe a story about the deficit that is largely not true. It’s a comforting story, to be sure. It holds the promise of a painless solution, because it suggests that the country’s huge looming deficits are not really our fault.… Continue reading We Like The Budget Deficit!
Bloomberg BusinessWeek – John Taylor: The Republicans’ Shadow Fed Chairman The Stanford University economist’s blistering policy critiques have inspired GOP leaders He doesn’t have a vote in Congress. He doesn’t sit on the powerful Federal Open Market Committee. He isn’t a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. Nonetheless, Stanford University’s John B.… Continue reading The Next Federal Reserve Chairman, John Taylor
The Economist – High-yield bonds: Back on the junk Junk-bond prices look frothy again IN ONE of the most eye-popping episodes of the financial crisis, high-yield bonds—those rated “junk”, or below investment grade—traded at an average interest rate of more than 20 percentage points above Treasury bonds in late 2008 as investors dumped risky assets.… Continue reading Junk Bonds