Author
7783 posts 575 comments
On Germany’s record trade surplus and increasing trade deficits in Japan
Trade data for the US, Germany, Japan and China were released earlier today. While the US, Germany and China had robust export growth that caused their surpluses to swell, Japan's numbers showed weakness despite the recent drop in the value…
European banking union looks weak
The much-touted European banking union, designed to separate country and banking risk seen as the nexus around which the sovereign debt crisis has moved, looks weak.
Europe: On Britain’s forcing through austerity at the EU level
In the links this morning, I linked to a Handelsblatt interview with the head of Austria's social democratic EU parliamentarians. The overall gist of his comments were that he believed the EU budget was 'catastrophic' because it was in…
Thoughts on the US Economy, Trade Data, Sequester and Deleveraging
The US trade figures for Q4 2012 came out this morning and they surprised analysts by showing a trade deficit that shrank 21% to $38.5 billion in December. According to Bloomberg News this was a lower deficit than any of 73 economists…
Jeremy Grantham on investing in US when long-term growth is lower
Jeremy Grantham's most recent quarterly report was released yesterday. Grantham expanded on his low-growth macro view with a number of additional insights based on both secular and political trends dominating the US economic picture. As…
Ireland to liquidate Anglo Irish to cut government debt
According to the Irish Times, the government of Ireland has entered into a deal with the ECB to cut the country's debt by liquidating the nationalised Irish bank Anglo Irish. As I noted in the Saturday post on Ireland's superior economic…