2011

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.

By Marc Chandler One of the fundamental characteristics of the global financial architecture is that the world’s second largest economy maintains a rigidly controlled currency.   The concept of currency wars, as initially…

by Win Thin Saudi Oil Minister Al-Naimi said that crude oil prices between $70-80 per barrel are “appropriate.”  OPEC Secretary-General el-Badri said his group would add oil output in the event of any supply disruptions, pledging…

By Win Thin Here are some more thoughts regarding a possible Greek debt restructuring, which was reported today by the Greek press. Reports suggest that the EU, IMF, and the ECB have reached a basic understanding that a Greek debt…

Piggybacking off of my last post highlighting Nouriel Roubini's talk with Simon Constable, I wanted to present three videos from Roubini's appearance on NBC Europe this morning. In the earlier pre-Davos Wall Street Journal interview,…