2010

Walter Bagehot wrote an eponymous financial book in the 19th century called Lombard Street, giving advice on finance and banking. The most important and quoted piece of advice Bagehot gave was to the Central Bank, in this case the Bank of…

The IMF total contribution to the European rescue fund is not a solid one. That is, the IMF responds to country-by-country requests for aid, not to regions. Thus, the IMF really does not have EUR250 bln set aside just for Europe.…

In a time when there is much discussion of peak oil and the idea that other commodities are less abundant or more costly to access, one issue that might not get enough attention among investors is the shortage of water. Some political…

The debt overhang in the developed world has lowered aggregate demand globally. As developed economies compete over a dwinding pie by moving toward a policy of economic nationalism, investment opportunities will dwindle. Bill Gross advises…

The US dollar rally was interrupted against most of the majors as strong Chinese data supported risk. The fears engulfing the euro toned down a little amid speculation that the ECB could take action tomorrow to contain the debt crisis,…

Politics will not get nearly as crazy or as radicalized as they did in the 1930s. There are much more robust mechanisms today for transferring and sharing adjustment costs. But it is hard to imagine that the kinds of disruptive political…

While this probably isn’t much proof of Keynes liquidity preference, at least in the extreme sense, it does help explain why M1 has grown significantly faster than broader measures of money supply, as cash simply shifts from M2 to M1.

A few weeks ago, when writing about the Irish debt crisis, I finished a post saying: Eventually, people may come around to Evans-Pritchard’s view: the only way out of this is via the ECB printing money and monetizing the periphery’s…

CNBC says that Wall Street bonuses will likely be down this year as much as 20% across the board. Take a look.

We have long felt that the market was underestimating tightening potential in 2011, but it appears to be coming around to our view. Weekly central bank survey shows market is now looking for an end-2011 policy rate of 12.25%, up from 12.0%…