Markets

The following is the currency outlook released today by the Brown Brothers Harriman Currency Strategy team: Swine flu and concerns about US banks may be hitting the headlines but, the European banking sector remains a threat for the euro…

China is really looking at a lot of other options to get away from the U.S. dollar. The latest report is that it has been building huge gold reserves. There is no doubt that China wants to get out and away from the U.S. dollar now. We…

This comes from Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman: China appears to be an offensive of sorts. The governor of the PBOC proposed evolving the SDR as an alternative reserve asset. China has announced CNY60 bln of swap lines with a…

House prices increased in March in the U.K. according to Nationwide Building Society. Below is what Nationwide's Chief Economist Fionnuala Earley had to say about this surprise good news: “Spring brought a surprise bounce to house prices…

You might have thought house price declines were slowing. I certainly had hoped so. The latest data from January 2009 from the S&P/Case-Shiller index suggests this is wishful thinking as year-on-year declines hit another record of…

In the wake of recent statements by Chinese officials about the dollar and dollar assets (see our previous comments here, here and here), it does seem like the Chinese are avoiding dolar-based transactions: China and Argentina have made…

The website You Walk Away has become pretty popular because it teaches mortgage holders how to dump their properties on banks and get out from under their mortgage without losing everything. Apparently, banks are getting into the act too…

While this bear market has been difficult, it does not compare to the 1930s as the graphs in this post indicate. And it's time to consider that the 2007-2009 bear market is almost over.

I am certainly no dollar bull. Longer-term, I believe the dollar is a weak currency. But, in the here and now, it does seem to be holding up quite well. Whether this continues to be the case remains to be seen. Nevertheless, in the…

This comes via Angus Robertson of Research Recap: The performance of auto loan securities has been mixed, but Standard & Poor’s Credit Research points out that overall ratings on the ABS have been remarkably stable in spite of…