Economy

Bottom line: the numbers are decent but they beat expectations. Markets are in a bullish end of year tape painting frame of mind, so stocks will rally. Daddy needs a bonus so Santa is indeed coming to town. The Santa Claus rally is on.

Sean Egan explains that this downgrade came because of increasing concerns that France's banks will have to be bailed out by the government. Video below

Starting today and running through next week, there is a key event nearly every day.

When will we begin to reign-in the Fed and hold it accountable? And will we let the Fed bail-out Wall Street without Congressional approval of funding the next time it crashes? We need to answer these questions soon, because it is beginning…

Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Courts of the Southern District of New York struck a blow against the Securities and Exchange Commission and in support of the "public interest." The Securities and Exchange Commission had…

What is clear is that, with the U.S. dollar as the world’s major reserve currency, this move to lower the price on U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements is due to the world’s banks being short U.S. dollars. In the past few days, there…

The EU Summit is the last opportunity of the year, and some observers say the last opportunity period, for action that will begin seriously addressing the crisis. Tomorrow France's Sarkozy is expected to present his proposals tomorrow and…

Foreign financial news for 29 November 2011

Britain’s economy is a shambles as the negative impact of austerity has been made plain. Now, mind you, it was already clear from a leaked Greek bailout document that expansionary fiscal consolidation has failed in Greece. But now the…

"While the need to preserve confidence may imply some continuing (though potentially declining) support for senior debt -- given the potential for contagion across the banking system -- the rationale for continuing to assume the willingness…