Britain

Everyone should be concerned about the increasing tone of trade friction in the global economy. While Chinese Premier Wen and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown are setting a positive tone in London today regarding bilateral trade…

The monthly Nationwide Building Society survey is out for house prices in the U.K. The data show an annual fall that is the steepest on record at 16.6%. This means that house prices are now falling more rapidly than ever in the U.K. and…

As the financial industry further unraveled yesterday, Mathieu Robbins of the Irish Indendent asked a worthwhile question: Was RBS the idiot company of all-time in buying ABN Amro at the top of the market? Robbins says no and offers up…

Last year, the British economy was one of the hardest hit by the now evident commercial property (CRE) implosion. Prices fell 27.1% in 2008, including a record 5.8% in December alone, suggesting the trend is accelerating. I mentioned in my…

There is no way to look past the way that the U.S. TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) has been administered and not understand we are seeing crony capitalism at work. One only need look at the way the British are doing things to see a…

The data are in for house prices in the United Kingdom and they are not good. Prices have now fallen 18% from their peak in October 2007 according to the latest Nationwide Building Society survey. They were down a massive 2.5% in December…

The U.S. Dollar got more bad news today when the Bank of England (BoE) decided to not follow the U.S. Federal Reserve's lead to a Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP). The BoE was seen as the most likely to follow in the Fed's footsteps as i…

Zero percent interest rates mean a weak currency. The U.S. Dollar is getting hammered. See these charts from the last day and a half of trading. Even the British Pound is cleaning up!

Today the Nationwide released their monthly UK-wide figures on house prices and the numbers were better. House prices fell 0.4% in the last month, bringing the annual fall to 13.9%, down from 14.6% in October. Nevertheless, this is the…