capital controls

The BBC's economics editor Stephanie Flanders released this nice little 3-minute video which explains why the so-called currency wars are something you should care about. For me, it is quite significant that South Korea of all countries,…

“It’s no use throwing dollars out of a helicopter,” Guido Mantega, the finance minister, said on Thursday. “The only result is to devalue the dollar to achieve greater competitiveness on international markets.” At a joint press…

by Win Thin EM currencies are rallying in the wake of the FOMC decision, with many back to testing or even besting the year’s highs vs. USD from mid-October.  We continue to feel that the conditions favoring EM investment will…

Andy Lees of UBS writes that quantitative easing is having the (designed) effect of diluting and transferring US debt elsewhere. It is already a success. In a morning note he tells us: Yesterday Saudi shifted its oil price target…

by Michael Hudson, President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of…

by Phillippe Legrain While the debate over global imbalances often focuses on China, this column argues that the biggest threat to the world economy comes from the other side of the seesaw – the US. Countless column inches are devoted…

This was my latest media appearance from last Friday. I spoke to Howard Green about the G-20 summit in Seoul with David Weidner of Market Watch. You can see some of my pre-meeting comments here. While I thought US Treasury Secretary…

from Win Thin, Global Head Of Emerging Markets Strategy, BBH Philippines central bank said it will use a mix of tools to manage capital inflows, since those inflows can “complicate” monetary policy.  Level of concern appears low, but…

Manuel Marfán, vice-governor of the Central Bank of Chile, told CNBC Europe Tuesday that the Chileans are concerned about what is happening in the currency markets. He said their first responsibility was to be "good global…

by Win Thin No big surprise from Brazil’s decision to boost the IOF tax again on fixed income foreign investment to 6% from 4% previously.  Still, this is a pretty strong statement since it comes just two weeks after it was hiked to…