2011

Predicting the future of policy making has been and will continue to be key to understanding where this economy is headed – and by extension what your investment portfolio will do.

While Spanish Prime Minister-elect Mariano Rajoy was preparing for continued austerity in Spain, his Popular Party colleague, Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, was talking to Bloomberg Television about the outlook for his…

And the crisis continues in Belgium ... The acting Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo officially resigned on Monday night. He has been trying to form a government. But after a serious step forward in October, stalled negotiations have led…

First, there is a disagreement about whether the ECB should be buying a significant amount of European bonds. Second, there is a disagreement over whether the ECB should declare that is it buying bonds for an extended period or unlimited…

As I said in defense of the ECB last week, “central bankers always prefer to force elected officials to make the tough political choices that are the essence of fiscal policy.” The ECB wants this whole problem to be resolved by elected…

With the fundraiser week winding down, I am going to start making a few changes now. One thing we probably need is a synopsis of the past week’s posts in order to tie the week’s events together thematically. I will make this synopsis using…

The US can run budget deficits that help to fuel current account deficits without worry about government or national insolvency precisely because the rest of the world wants Dollars. But surely that cannot be true of any other nation.…

The following is the text of today’s Moody’s press release on the Irish banking system. London, 21 November 2011 -- The outlook on Ireland's banking system remains negative, says Moody's Investors Service in a Banking System Outlook…

BofA Clash With Fannie Mae Escalates Over Loan Buyback Stance - Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BAC) told Fannie Mae it refuses to cooperate with the U.S. mortgage firm's new stance on loan buybacks, setting the lender up for a…