2010

by Michael Schussele The people of Ireland have been impressed into a life of indentured servitude by the financial engineers of the IMF and EU to pay the debts of bankers (723 billion euro of guarantees) which were not their debts and to…

Highlights The US dollar is mostly lower as the market anticipates the data deluge from China this weekend (along with the preliminary 50bp hike in reserve requirement) and trading volumes narrow. The euro drifted moderately higher, as…

The deal between President Obama and the Republican congressional leadership is not likely to have a significant positive effect on an economy facing severe headwinds pulling in a negative direction. The key fact to remember is that we are…

The Brazilian finance minister Guido Mantega continues to worry about the flood of money coming from Europe and the US and has said Brazil will take more steps to defend its currency. Mr. Mantega was quoted saying "With the situation…

This one from the Former Merrill Lynch Chief Investment Strategist Bernstein seems to be making the rounds. Hat tip Barry Ritholtz. Here's where I first noted that Richard Bernstein had turned bullish: Bernstein added that one wants to…

Today's daily links include finance-related news articles on gold, WikiLeaks, China, LDS legal woes and more. Credit Writedowns articles of note are on Italy, Emerging Markets and the recent tax cut deal.

Here our thoughts regarding the rumored downgrade of Italy. While we remain negative on the ratings for peripheral euro zone, we don't think a downgrade of Italy is a sure thing. Its numbers have always been bad, and have in fact stayed…

I wrote a post about six months ago called "Misunderstanding Modern Monetary Theory" on deficits and resource allocation that I was re-reading. I wanted to add some off-the-cuff comments that might be relevant to today's…

by Win Thin Ratings news from EM stands in stark contrast to what we’re seeing in the developed world. Yesterday, Uruguay was upgraded two notches. Today, S&P moved the outlook on Thailand’s BBB+ rating to stable from negative, noting…

by Win Thin Here are some more thoughts regarding the Fitch downgrade of Ireland by three notches to BBB+. The agency cited the mounting costs of the banking system rescue as a major factor behind the move, and is consistent with what we…