Britain

This is a great chart below via the Wall Street Journal. It shows the total debt to GDP ratios for the largest developed economies in the world broken down into four sectors: households, non-financial corporations, financial institutions…

The euro was recovering in early Europe, moving back toward the upper end of its recent narrow range and it reversed course sharply, triggering stops along the way as it dropped nearly a cent to $1.2695. The technical failure yesterday at…

If you argue that austerity works in cutting deficits over the longer-term but the short-term pain is worth it, that's a different argument than the one Republicans are making - and one not likely to get one elected, which is why they're…

The downfall of MF Global has exposed yet another patch of the underbelly of the brokerage industry. Practices that are routine and legal – and hitherto largely unknown to most investors – can leave a company vulnerable when abused.

The British decision to veto the proposed new EU treaty is not surprisingly provoking an avalanche of commentary this weekend. Among journalists, at least, there seems to be a consensus that David Cameron committed some kind of major…

Three events took place last week that will shape the general investment climate in the weeks and months ahead.

The US dollar is firm against all the major and emerging market currencies. Equity markets are lower, giving back all of Friday's gains and more. The euro has dropped 1% and the next level of support is seen near $1.3200.

Tomorrow the central banks will auction dollars for the first time under the lower rates. There was some talk that the lower take down at this week's regular refi operation (about 13 bln less euros than were maturing from last week's…

News links from 2 December 2011 include links on the European sovereign debt crisis, the UK economy, the latest on mortgages and technology as well as other stories.

ISM - ISM Report - November 2011 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® "The PMI registered 52.7 percent, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from October's reading of 50.8 percent, indicating expansion in the manufacturing…