2011

Below are two charts from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The first shows the US Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers from 1913 through March. The second shows the same data from 1990. The US has generally had a positive…

Guest Author Polyvios Petropolous argues that the European Union must put in place the contingency plans for a Greek debt restructuring in secret before the plan is announced and executed. To end bailouts without such a plan in place would…

The following editorial by Timo Soini, the head of the True Finns party in Finland, on perceived corporatism in the EU bailouts of the eurozone periphery appeared in Monday's Wall Street Journal. We are reprinting it here because the…

Systemic risk is not driven by close macro integration. If this were the case, US states would have far higher exposure to systemic credit risk. Instead, systemic exposure is very high for European sovereigns. The roots of systemic risk lie…

Banks are never constrained by reserves or reserve ratios. Banks are capital constrained. In our fiat money system, the central bank uses reserves in the system to help the Federal hit a target interest rate. So, the central bank provides…

You have strong growth in emerging markets offset by weaker growth in the developed economies. Who wins this battle? For now, EM is winning and that is bullish for commodities over the near-term.

Dollar stronger on the day for the fourth day in a row. Stories are flying about a possible new Greek aid package, causing choppy currency markets. Swiss CPI well below expectations; Norway CPI above expectations

One of the key premises underpinning the establishment of the Euro as a common currency to be shared by a number of individual national states rather than one single nation was the central idea that the several economies of the…

Once politicians set policy and commit to it by signing it into existence, they would rather risk losing office than change course.

Almost a week before S&P’s move, Fitch cut the outlook for China’s yuan debt to negative from stable. Media coverage was almost non-existent and there has hardly been any commentary. Frankly, most observers don’t even seem to know it…