2013

The destructive quality of irredeemable credit, understood by some before the U.S. mortgage crash, obvious to more in its wake, was crystallized in the too-low, centrally controlled, interest rates that flushed a bacillus of fake money and…

Again Sweden is in the news in an article below I want to highlight. As I said yesterday in the links, I do want to talk about Sweden because the economic situation there is interesting. The Swedes are often seen as having the right mix of…

Sterling is has eclipsed the yen as the main focus in the foreign exchange market. The surprising news that has kicked it to fresh multi-month low was that the BOE is closer to easing policy than has been suspected. While it was a unanimous…

Morgan Stanley had a very good note out earlier today reporting that Apple needs to issue an iPhone mini to capture share in China. This is what I have been advising as the market share margin trade-off is favourable for Apple's bottom…

In the U.S. and in euro countries, policies aimed at stimulating exports are considered an effective response to lagging growth and recession. Viewing a net export balance as an economic virtue and a growth engine is a relic of Mercantilism…

News links for 19 February 2013

Historical data shows conditions peaking in late winter to early spring and declining later in the year.

It has been some time now since the ECB turned to monetisation to deal with its sovereign debt crisis. At the time, the Germans were out in full force attempting to stop the train of events and keep the ECB out of the political economy.…

The focus on currency wars distracts from other and arguably more important issues. Much of coverage of the G20 statement focused on the foreign exchange market, but has missed what is likely an even more important story. The G20 have…

This is clearly going to create headwinds for consumer sentiment and ultimately spending patterns, particularly when combined with other issues consumers are facing this year.