Markets

Fitch has not been as aggressive as the other two agencies, keeping Austria and France at AAA up until now. As such, its negative comments about the Netherlands are noteworthy and likely signal a harder line by Fitch in the coming months.…

The bullish argument that houses are now generally affordable also does not hold up on closer examination. As we have repeated ad infinitum the average household has too much debt and is in the midst of deleveraging rather than taking on…

Jeremy Grantham: "The central truth of the investment business is that investment behavior is driven by career risk. In the professional investment business we are all agents, managing other peoples’ money. The prime directive, as Keynes…

In this first post of a series of 3-5 posts, I try to present the building blocks of the argument as I see them and answer the question of why the traditional view on the liquidity trap does not apply in the current situation.

It is a ploy that would no doubt bring a smile to the faces of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli. First, China is giving up something that it is not really using. Specifically, the current band itself has rarely, if ever been utilized, which is why…

Rising tensions in Europe continues to be a dominant force in the foreign exchange market, with the euro briefly dipping below the $1.30 level for the first time since mid-February.

The debate over another round of asset purchases seems to be getting less play than the debate over guidance, and the real Troika of BYD (Bernanke, Yellen and Dudley) are reading from the same song book. They are maintaining the view of…

I thought I should present the somewhat bullish view of the margin issue we have been discussing here. PIMCO's Neel Kashkaari is out with a note that underscores what the bulls are thinking about the issue.

China's Q1 GDP disappointed expectations and market rumors and is the chief driver of the capital markets today. The official measure of growth was 8.1%. The consensus was 8.4% before yesterday's rumors of a 9% rise made the rounds and…

I thought I'd point out that the already severely undercapitalised Spanish banking system is being crushed by the spike in Spanish sovereign yields. I continue to expect Europe to continue the extend and pretend approach, creating…