Brazil

After embarking on a third round of easing last year that only involved extending the length of its zero rate policy and changing the Fed's Treasury portfolio duration mix, the Fed has recently started QE3 with an even more aggressive tone.…

The following is the text of a speech Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered at a high-level seminar sponsored by the International Monetary Fund on Sunday. Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here. This morning I will first…

Why is the global economy hamstrung by heavy debts and weak banks? Or put another way, why doesn’t deleveraging happen, and the weight of debt reduce, and why doesn’t the economy expand so the weak banks can once more become robust and…

The data today were pretty mixed. Brazil is showing more signs of slowing as industrial production there dropped for the third month in a row. What's more is that this puts Brazil back to numbers from 2009 when we were recovering from a…

The latest economic data suggest that the slowdown in growth continues to build across many different economies globally. In the UK, revised data from Q4 2011 show that Britain;s recession has been deeper than was previously…

This is a quick note here on Latin American economies where currency issues are the main story. Argentina has been most often in the news, but the slowdown in Brazil should be top on the radar. I also note that some European banks are…

Today's big news was the bond auction in Spain. Spain's auction went off without a hitch but at a cost. Spain sold 2.5 bln euros ($3.3 billion USD). The Spanish Treasury sold a 1.1 bln euro bond maturing 31 Oct 2014 (average yield: 3.463%,…

The dollar is weaker against most major and EM currencies with Greece still the major focus. The euro broke above 1.32 against the dollar in the European morning as it becomes evident that the Greek PSI deal will likely go through, as we…

Spanish 10-years yields continue to rise above those of Italy, and suggest that Spain may be the next country in the hot seat. Data released today confirms that the contraction in Spanish industrial production is still ongoing, with…

This is a gold level post. I want to flag this as an issue since no one seems to be talking about it. Brazil's economy has slowed very sharply of late and along with slowdowns in India and China, it says that the global economy will get…