2010

In the week ending 4 Dec 2010, initial claims for unemployment insurance in the US fell to a seasonally-adjusted figure of 421,000. This is a decrease from the revised 438,000 measured the week prior. The more followed 4-week average figure…

This is another little animated story on Greece that takes a rather cynical view of the politics and economy - a bit of gallows humor, really.

Highlights The US dollar headed higher, except against the Australian dollar, but continues to outperform against the rest of the G10. The euro, after earlier losses accelerated around $1.332, traded below $1.320 following the news that…

Present Obama answers questions on his decision to go against his campaign promises to let the Bush tax cuts expire.

I almost feel naïve for being so angry at President Obama’s betrayal of his campaign promises regarding taxes. I had never harbored much hope that he actually intended to enact the reforms that his supporters expected – not after he…

Moody’s upgraded Uruguay two notches to Ba1 from Ba3 previously, bringing it into line with S&P’s BB+. We recently added Uruguay to our sovereign ratings model universe, bringing the total number of EM countries ranked to 39. As we…

by Marc Chandler Three observations to share about China, regarding purchases of Japanese assets, suspension of 3-year debt auction for tomorrow and rate hike possibility. First, Japan's MOF reported that China bought JPY262.6 bln of…

These first posts are on QE. My view is that QE won't work. The fundamentals are negative for a lot more credit growth and the Fed has concentrated on QE quantity instead of QE price i.e. rate. The result, predictably, is that rates are not…

The problem Bernanke is having goes to terminology and the difficulty of explaining a complex monetary system. In 2002 and again last year, Bernanke used 'money' to denote the reserves he is now creating to buy government Treasury…

Yes, I know; there are flaws in this video but still... C'mon, is Bernanke printing money or not? In 2002, he said yes. In 2009, he said yes. Now he says no? My take: it's a lot easier to tell a story if you stick to it. And it's also nice…