2012

I am a macro guy and so I usually discount the importance of single events when thinking about the bigger picture. That said, this is a momentous decision and a stunning defeat for Samsung. And it should be clear that Samsung was copying…

By Sober Look Analysts often talk about how the weak euro helps exporters in the Eurozone, particularly Germany because of its massive export sector. But is Germany the main beneficiary? Which other nations want the euro to weaken further?…

Note: I missed a few articles here, so I may be updating this post with them later today. Or I may put them in the next daily links post As I said last year about the Troika's coming occupation of the periphery, none of these countries is…

I was discussing this with a few friends online a couple of weeks ago and now it's all over the news. Earnings have been poor, yet stocks continue to push higher. One argument was that "the key is deleveraging the banking system in an…

I told you a week ago why I was switching from a PC to a Mac. So I have made the switch and I am one week into my return to the Mac. So far, I'm pretty happy. No Blue screens of death anymore! To be honest with you, the first few days were…

By Rick Bookstaber There is a recent story in the New York Times on the growing use of labor-saving robots to increase production efficiency and, by replacing low-cost overseas labor, to return production to our shores. But the operative…

By Sober Look As yesterday's flash PMI numbers show, the declines in iron ore prices (discussed here) were indeed signaling an ongoing broad based slowdown in China's economy. Bloomberg: - China’s manufacturing may be contracting at a…

I just wrote up a post on Goldman's thoughts on coming ECB policy moves. Goldman's musings are credible because the author is their chief European economist, who was until a year ago at the top of the ECB's Monetary Policy Stance Division.…

Editor's Note: this post has been corrected to reflect a different interpretation of the Goldman analyst's remarks. Ex-ECB economist Huw Pill agrees with many of us that the ECB is unlikely to engage in explicit rate targeting when it…

By Marc Chandler In recent weeks, the market had appeared to be scaling back expectations of another round of asset purchases by the Federal Reserve.   US 10-year Treasury yields rose nearly 40 bp since the August 1.  The reconsideration…