2011

News links for 21 December 2011 including notes on technology, the sovereign debt crisis, elections, and Europe

To it’s credit, the ECB has been pretty good on the liquidity front all along. I’d give it an A grade for liquidity vs the Fed where I’d give a D grade for liquidity. Back in 2008 the ECB was quick to provide unlimited euro liquidity to its…

The last post by Randall Wray below is an interesting one because it points out how the world has changed since the end of the gold standard and why the sovereign debt crisis is centered in the euro zone. While I have an Austrian bias…

It seems to have been none other than Paul Krugman who made it safe for others to adopt MMT. He shined his headlights on the obvious: the reason why interest rates on government debt are not exploding in countries like Japan, the US, and…

The Wall Street Journal's Stu Woo reports on how Amazon ramps up for the Christmas selling season in a much-read write-up for the paper with a focus on the thoughts of holiday season workers like 75-year old Ray Williams and his wife…

The euro extended its rally to a six day high, just shy of $1.32 before the results of the ECB's allotment. The results were at the upper end of expectations and the euro was returned to session lows. A classic buy the rumor of a strong…

Now the bubble is visibly bursting. How much damage will it do to the Chinese economy — and the world? That is our homework assignment over the holiday. Getting it right will determine 2012′s investment and trading returns, in our opinion.…

Let’s see how it is really done in the US—where the Treasury really does hold accounts in both private banks and the Fed, but can write checks only on its account at the Fed. Further, the Fed is prohibited from buying Treasuries directly…

Imagine if/when this becomes scalable. Another potential example of the structural change taking place in the labor force.

Following the 1-year repo in June 09, there had been market talk of the money going into the short-term Italian and Spanish bonds. Yet we don't expect as much of new carry trades some officials might wish. The lion's share of the funds LTRO…