2010

In this post are links to the latest important financial news stories on the web. I am going to try and go about the links a bit differently in the future. Rather than just list the links here, I intend to expand on some of the stories…

Minutes from the December 7/8 COPOM meeting in Brazil are worth commenting on.  The central bank put a lot of weight on its decision to hike reserve requirements December 3, calling it a “fast and powerful” tool to contain domestic…

The ECB announced its subscription capital base of 5.8 bln euros would effectively be doubled to 10.8 bln euros effective at the end of the year. The move is not surprising and has been hinted for the better part of a week at least. It…

The problem is that the current approach – centred on dealing with liquidity problems now and solvency issues later – is not working. A liquidity approach that delays the day of reckoning may be good regional politics, but it's…

The US Department of Labor noted this morning that: In the week ending Dec. 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 420,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 423,000. The 4-week…

Russia is keen on developing stronger ties with both China and the EU in order to secure its global economic position. The recent agreement with China to begin Ruble-Renminbi trading in Russia is part of this effort. Last week, Marc…

The US dollar is mixed, stuck in narrow trading ranges amid the light volume of the holiday season. After falling below yesterday’s figure, the euro strengthened to $1.3266 but gains may be limited with the start of the EU summit today.…

There has been a lot of chatter of late about countries ditching the US dollar as the primary reserve currency and moving on to something else. Robert Zoellick mentioned gold as the alternative. Nicolas Sarkozy has been talking up special…

We have some good links on the political economy today which highlight continuing efforts to frame the credit crisis in a bank-favourable light. I recommend reading them because they reinforce my view that the body politic in the US is…

Press is reporting that the government may impose a bank levy next year of about 0.1% on what it terms “non-core overseas debt.” It appears that the authorities are getting more serious about addressing the nation’s high short-term debt…