Economy

Ever since Fred Sheehan published his post on the bifurcated view on "The 'Flations", I have been using this as a baseline way of talking about prices. Easy monetary policy is geared to raising prices. However, if the secular…

What accounts for the difference in inflation paths in the UK and the US?  In America, we have disinflation, causing the Federal Reserve to conduct a second round of quantitative easing. But in the UK, we have accelerating inflation.…

“The issue of the renminbi is one that is an irritant not just to the United States, but is an irritant to a lot of China’s trading partners and those who are competing with China to sell goods around the world. It is undervalued. And…

I caught this at the bottom of Andy Lees' morning note: China – To limit inflation China will impose price controls on food according to the NDRC, and will severely punish anyone found speculating on corn or cotton. “The policies that…

Morgan Stanley had a note out yesterday on the pass-through of commodity price inflation into consumer price inflation. Their conclusion is that the pass-through will be weak. But, at the margin this will keep the U.S. from tipping into…

Stephen Roach argues that the U.S. is not equipped to turn the Fed's liquidity into domestic demand so the liquidity provided by quantitative easing will simply leak out abroad to form asset bubbles somewhere else. He is principally…

by Annaly Capital Management Plenty has already been written about last week’s nonfarm payroll data. Many have pointed out the weakness underlying the relatively strong +151,000 headline number: the household survey (which feeds the…

This is a hilarious cartoon video about the Fed and its program of quantitative easing, explaining it in terms everyone can understand. Watch for humourous references to "The Quantitative Easing," "The Inflation," "The Deflation," and…

by Comstock Partners The headline numbers for changes in non-farm payroll employment are significantly overstated according to our examination of the data in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website. This occurs as a result of the…

Here are Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Nocera of the New York Times having a video debate about the foreclosure crisis.  Nocera thinks this is a key economic issue. Sorkin thinks the issue is overblown. My take: For political reasons,…