2014

In 1845, the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, a breakaway territory from the Republic of Mexico. This annexation created great hostility between the US and Mexico, leading to the Mexican-American war in 1846. The events are 170…

News links for 18 Mar 2014

By Marc Chandler In response to the Crimean referendum, new sanctions have been announced. The European Union has announced sanctions against 21 Russian individuals. This was the bare minimum expected. It will include travel visa bans and…

Recent economic and geopolitical events should be seen through a longer-term strategic lens. During the Cold War, we lived in a bipolar world dominated by the US and its Allies on one side and the Soviets and their vassal states on the…

Weekend developments will dominate the first part of the week ahead. Two developments stand out. First, China announced a doubling of the permissible band from 1.0% to 2.0% around the daily fix. The PBOC deliberately and preemptively…

News links for 17 Mar 2014

The PBOC announced a band-widening for USD/CNY over the weekend, doubling the allowable band around the fix rate to +/- 2%. Off of Friday’s fix, the new band is 6.01-6.26 vs. 6.07-6.20 previously. The USD/CNY band was last widened in April…

Credit growth in the US seems to have stabilized and may be on the rise. It's worth mentioning that the bottom in loan growth just happened to correspond to the start of Fed's taper. Coincidence? Maybe. But why is corporate America…

News links for 15 Mar 2014

By Doug French, Contributing Editor, Casey Research Figuring out what’s going on in Ukraine is like following the plot of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Bloomberg reports Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster as “Moscow-backed,” while Al Jazeera calls…