Political Economy

Danish Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen is preparing Denmark for admission to the Eurozone. Despite my skepticism about the Euro as a currency, I would say that Denmark is a perfect candidate for entry. The Danish economy is already very…

When the Bush Administration gave banks money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), it was not a complete freebie. The government has received preferred shares in many institutions. This shares pay dividends to the government…

The need to bailout banks for their aggressive lending in central and eastern Europe is becoming ever more apparent. An Austrian bank has taken the lead in getting a consortium of banks together to lobby the European Union for bailout…

Here is the inaugural address of the new President, Barack Obama, from earlier today.

I am skeptical as to the economic benefits of the Eurozone. In my view, the Euro has always been more of a political construct than an economic one. Nevertheless, the Euro has functioned quite well as a leading international currency in the…

The new $100,000,000,000,000 note is now out in Zimbabwe. It is worth 23 Euros ($30)

The riots on the streets of Vilnius and Riga in the Baltics are not being covered in the least in the U.S. media (Hat tip Ken). I believe they should because, as with Greece, the social unrest we are witnessing in those countries is the…

News in Japan has been particularly grim. Industrial production has plummeted, exports are in free fall and banks are simply not lending as excess reserves pile up. As a result, Japanese share prices threaten to revisit lows that bring the…

Marshall Auerback here. I wanted to add a few thoughts to the discussion about recent events in U.S. banking. Below is the Federal Reserve press release on the Bank of America bailout. Here are the most important words from the release:…

The Irish government scrapped a planned recapitalization of Anglo Irish Bank and moved straight to full nationalization. While some may view this as a necessary move to shore up a troubled institution, I see this as ominous news because…