2013

In November, soon after France and Belgium were forced to pump another 5.5 billion euros into bailed out lender Dexia, the ratings agency Moody's stripped France of its AAA sovereign debt rating. The interesting bit was that Moody's…

While the well-respected Internet blog TechCrunch focused on the Apple/Samsung story in analysing the data from Gartner's latest survey on the mobile market, the real news was elsewhere. The BBC got it right in trumpeting that "mobile phone…

Of all of the elements of the US fiscal cliff, the most damaging from a consumer perspective is likely to be the increase in payroll taxes as it hits a broad swathe of consumers in the middle class. This was confirmed today via the release…

Akira Amrai, Japan's economic minister, announced: "It will be important to show our mettle and see the Nikkei reach the 13,000 mark by the end of the fiscal year (March 31)... We want to continue taking (new) steps to help stock prices…

News links for 13 February 2013

The shareholders and subordinated bond holders of SNS Reaal are now fighting an alleged expropriation at the Dutch Council of State. In addition, these stakeholders are contesting the Dutch government's position that shareholders and…

The rise and rise of Japanese debt is far from benign, and the dynamic, we are convinced, will at some point become unsustainable. Unfortunately by the time we reach that point it will be too late. Indeed, given that we agree with Krugman…

News links for 12 February 2013

Nationalised Dutch lender SNS Reaal, the fourth largest bank in the Netherlands has recently been nationalised despite a reported 13 percent Tier 1 capital level in the most recent round of banking stress tests in Europe. Clearly, the…

My friend Scott sent me this video of a magician creating money out of thin air. I thought it was pretty good. Being the investing, econ sort of people, we both also thought it was pretty germane to today's economic environment, don't you…