Political Economy

This post is designed to be a quick hit but I wanted to put up a few thoughts on corporatism, stimulus and austerity. Consider it an extension of my post "Corporatism masquerading as Liberty". I intend to argue that corporatism is…

The Obama Administration is keen to get this $20 billion mortgage settlement done. The prevailing view in the Administration is that the U.S. is in a fragile but sustainable recovery. With emerging markets leading the economic recovery and…

The financial climate has changed radically from when Norway’s Oil Fund was established in 1990. Norway has built up its savings since then by selling enormous quantities of oil and gas, and employing many thousands of workers. By…

Portugal does not appear to have had the boom that Ireland and Spain had. Portugal's problem is the chronic grind loss of competitiveness due to high costs and low productivity. We note that Portugal's latest inflation reading of 3.6% in…

The three notch downgrade of Greece from Ba1 to B1 by Moody’s was a bit surprising, even to jaded followers of rating agency behavior. While we have remained negative on the country, is it really as bad off as Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Belarus,…

This note comes from an American equity analyst. I have underlined the most important parts. I will give my interpretation below: Bank Money held by those in the real economy is contracting. Fed Money is a different animal. Fed…

Cross post with GEI News The Bangladesh Government has ordered Muhammad Yunus removed as a managing director of Gameen Bank. Yunus won a Nobel prize for his work in microfinance, a system that provides opportunity for the impoverished to…

With yields on Portugal now above 7.4%, many are predicting Portugal will soon need a bailout because it cannot reduce its debt load with yields that high. Portugal simply cannot grow its economy fast enough to pare debt with yields that…

By Marc Chandler The government submits a budget. Their majority in one house allows it to be passed there. The opposition is trying to obstruct it and it is raising concern about the world's largest public debt. This is not the US, but…

 Speech by Janet L. Yellen, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business U.S. Monetary Policy Forum, New York, New York - February 25, 2011.  Cross post from Global Economic Intersection. The…