2012

One of our thematic points for Q2 is the increased importance of political factors for the investment climate. Dutch developments are consistent with this and the risk that the government collapses is rising.

Below is a video excerpt of the interview US Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke conducted with ABC News' Diane Sawyer earlier this week. Below that is the transcript.

Here's what I see: job destruction during a cyclical downturn followed by massive job destruction after the Lehman failure followed by a steady climb toward tepid job creation. Take a look.

This one's short today as I am running out of time. I posted earlier regarding Bill Gross' comments about the Fed doing a mortgage-backed QE3. There's nothing fundamentally off about this call. But we really aren't there yet as it is wholly…

The following is the text of a ratings action on Portuguese banks initiated today

My view as developed in that post is that debt is central to understanding economic systems, and not just because it has a redistributive element in apportioning losses between creditors and debtors when recession forces credit writedowns.…

Alan Holmes wrote in 1969 that "in the real world, banks extend credit, creating deposits in the process, and look for the reserves later." Holmes would turn in his grave at Krugman’s naïve assertion, half a century later, that banks need…

Back in November last year I posted on my confusion over the jubilation shown by the citizens of Spain as they elected Mariano Rajoy as their new political leader. Mr Rajoy’s strategy during the election campaign was to say very little…

The following transcript and video is courtesy of Bloomberg TV where Bill Gross spoke to Margaret Brennan today, telling her that he thinks the Fed will go Qe3, but that it will shift to mortgage backed securities when Operation Twist ends…

Greece argues that its needs to strong defense spending for two threats. The first is from Turkey. Yet relations have improved and a military confrontation between these two NATO members seem quite remote. The other threat Greece is thought…