Political Economy

By Doug French, Contributing Editor, Casey Research Figuring out what’s going on in Ukraine is like following the plot of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Bloomberg reports Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster as “Moscow-backed,” while Al Jazeera calls…

The Chamber of Deputies approved the electoral reform bill that Renzi and Berlusconi had negotiated before Renzi squeezed out Letta to become Prime Minister of Italy. The bill goes to the Senate now.

By Marc Chandler There is a common perception that Russia move on Crimea shows its strength. A closer examination suggests it is more complicated that it may seem. Like the bully at the school yard, the aggressiveness conceals weaknesses.…

Business lending in the Eurozone is very poor - flat in the major core countries and falling in the periphery. There is a desperate need to ease credit conditions for SMEs in periphery countries. The slight easing of interest rates on…

By Marc Chandler A discussion of what the ECB is likely to do at Thursday's policy meeting requires an appreciation of its challenges. There are four challenges that the ECB faces in nursing the "weak, fragile and uneven" recovery, as…

Unless serious action is taken, Europe in particular (but the U.S. is not far behind) is at risk of falling into a very deep hole from which it may be extraordinarily difficult to dig itself out of. Once in, it will prove ever so hard to…

The ECB continues to argue that there is no deflation risk in the Eurozone though many people dispute this. The ECB must act, and politicians in the Eurozone must allow it to do so. Treaties be damned.

I thought the podcast below was a good one. Basically, central banks are making it up as they go along. It's not a science. Also see William White on Ultra Easy Monetary Policy and the Law of Unintended Consequences.

The effectiveness of US sanctions against Russia are almost toothless if they are unilateral. The conditions that the IMF will likely require to put Ukraine on more sustainable fiscal footing will mean economic hardship and may do more to…

The conflict in Ukraine is first and foremost about the violent overthrow of a corrupt regime that was not increasing living standards. But now that Ukraine has appealed to the west, it has become much more about Russia’s sphere of…