2011

The dollar is stronger across the board as periphery strains and soft data weigh on euro This week US data is likely to remain mixed and limit euro’s slide; China’s flash PMI moderates Our sovereign ratings model suggests that the…

Here are some thoughts regarding the late Friday cut in outlook to negative for Italy’s A+ rating by S&P. While we remain negative on the ratings for peripheral euro zone, we don't think a downgrade of Italy by S&P is clearly…

By Claus Vistesen One of the reasons that I have always had a problem with Goldman Sachs' infamous notion of the BRIC economies was not the fact that it excluded other important economies such as e.g Chile or Indonesia, but rather that…

The change of power on the regional level is important in Spain because of their relative fiscal autonomy. Regions control spending on health care and education and account for half of government employees. They have an outstanding debt of…

This is good satire from Stephen Colbert. It reminds me a little of Conan, William Shatner and Sarah Palin doing their poetry readings in 2010.

Not raising the debt ceiling will not mean default, instead it will mean other federal spending will get cut

Typical street review of today’s numbers from Goldman. As suspected, look for continued downward revisions to initial 4% Q2 estimates. And note the graph below showing employment as a % of the population. The economy continues to be demand…

The relationship between oil and currencies is no more stable that the relationship between the S&P 500 and currencies. As we noted yesterday in our look at the correlation between a handful of currencies and the S&P 500, it is not…

Jim Chanos sees a slowdown in residential property sales coupled with declining prices. Real estate companies are starting to close down. He argued on CNBC yesterday that this means the first signs of a Chinese slowdown are showing. Video…

"I don't want to see unemployment this high," Thomas Hoenig says. "But I also don't want to see it this high three or four years from now following another crisis because we were so impatient. That's a very hard trade-off and it's very…