February 2011

Bill Gross is at it again. The bond king who has taken a populist turn is out with another monthly investment commentary that features a negative view of Wall Street (God's work) and Federal Reserve monetary policy. I want to hone in on the…

By Rick Bookstaber A few months ago I discussed the failing of econophysics, and more generally, the economic paradigm that treats people like computers and views economic dynamics like physics. The natural follow up question is, “What can…

The latest Nationwide House Price Index update is out showing a decline of 0.1% in January 2011. That brings house prices down 1.1% since this time last year. Nationwide has a new Chief Economist, Robert Gardner, who writes: "The…

The PMI Index for the January 2011 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® released this morning increased to 60.8% from 58.5% in December. This was well above consensus estimates, which looked for a dip to 57.9%. With 50 seen as the…

By Win Thin and his Emerging Markets Strategy Team at Brown Brothers Harriman India: Economic and Currency Snapshot Macroeconomic Update: GDP rose 8.9% y/y in both Q2 and Q3, and is expected to grow about 9% in 2010 and 8.5% in 2011.…

By Claus Vistesen As the proverbial line seems to be running out for Greece, I thought that I would look at a slightly longer, although no less important, issue in the context of Spain; more specifically the trend in net migration. While…

Here is my mantra regarding so-called 'unsustainable' debt levels. I feel strongly about this topic so I'll repeat it and show you a few statistics on consumer debt from the recent US government data: oor quality growth can continue…

The big news when the advanced estimate of the 4Q/2010 GDP was announced last week was the recovery of the pre-recession level of GDP.  This was presented by some as good news, but was suitably qualified by others.