June 2010

Often when global investors think about high yielding Latam debt, Brazil is the first country to come to mind.  And for good reason.  Brazil’s local currency debt offers among the highest yields in the world.  On a 2-year…

Frederick Sheehan is the author of Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession (McGraw-Hill, 2009). (Reuters) – "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday…

There is nothing preventing the Federal Reserve from buying up any financial asset it so chooses with money it creates out of thin air. In fact, I seriously doubt that the vaunted bond market vigilantes would be able to cause US interest…

Here’s the more sober and serious analysis from the McChrystal Affair courtesy of PBS. Also see: Political Fallout of McChrystal Ouster Examined – PBS News Hour Afghanistan Policy, Goals Reexamined Upon McChrystal Departure – PBS…

Highlights The US dollar is little is generally firmer.  However, the main driver is not really the greenback but heightened risk aversion and fears of a renewed economic downturn given the austerity in Europe and weakness in the…

It looks like regulatory reform might have some teeth from the latest updates from Josh Rosner.

Paul Krugman has it right when he says this: I hold no brief for weak financial regulation in America. But it’s a bad sign that Germans still think of this as a made-in-America crisis. The truth is that the European housing bubble was…

The decision to leave rates on hold was an easy one for the Fed to make.  The Fed still anticipates this will be the case for an extended period.  The statement seemed to recognize some of the less favorable data since it met…

German daily Die Zeit published comments from an interview with famed US hedge fund investor George Soros who was sharply critical of German economic policy.  Soros claimed that Germany was "isolated" in its austere…

The 32.7% decline in new homes sales to a new cyclical low has actually sparked a bout of dollar and yen buying on risk aversion. The revisions to the March and April time series also point to a much weaker picture than we had.  …