Economy

Most of us have about 20 years to secure our retirement - from our mid 40s to our mid 60s. That has been an absolute disaster for my generation, with inflation-adjusted returns on a global equity portfolio being down about 23% over the past…

This is a post by Edward Hugh, who also blogs at Global Economy Matters. According to data released today from the Swedish statistical office Sweden unexpectedly fell back into recession in the fourth quarter, adding to the impression…

The February 2010 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® was released this morning. It indicated that the manufacturing sector was slightly less robust in February than January, with the PMI slipping from 58.4% to 56.5%. As 50 is still the…

This is a post by Edward Hugh, who also blogs at Global Economy Matters. Global manufacturing activity continued to expand in February, albeit at a slightly weaker pace than in January. At 55.2, down slightly from 56.1 in January, the…

That’s the question on everyone’s mind and the one Bill Gross of Pimco attempts to answer in this month’s Investment Outlook. He starts out defining the problem as a lack of aggregate demand – the Keynesian understanding of depression.…

Nationwide released it’s monthly house price survey, and it showed the first month-to-month fall in UK house prices since last Spring. However, house prices are still up 9.2% year-on-year according to their survey. Martin Gahbauer,…

Below is a partial list of January 2010 FDIC enforcement decisions and orders. I have only included cease-and-desist orders, prompt corrective action notices and termination of insurance orders as these are the signs of banking system…

This post was originally published at A Fistful of Euros. “Doom-mongers” - the Economist tells us - “are licking their wounds”. And why exactly are they licking their wounds? Well for two years now (apparently) they have been telling us…

Over the past few days, a number of major European banks have announced earnings results.  Two of the most dismal results were registered at the British company Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and at Germany’s Commerzbank. However, the…

The latest dust-up involving Goldman Sachs involves Build America Bonds. The New York Times reports: Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa has asked Goldman Sachs to clarify how much it has collected in underwriting fees as states and…