China

There hasn't actually been any "QE".   You've simply had the promise of QE2 and some attempts within the market to front run the actual implementation of the policy.  In reality, QE per se has nothing to do with the…

I think it's fair to characterize the situation with the Fed's Quantitative Easing Open Mouth Operations as somewhat out of control. Fears of a disorderly decline in the US dollar are certainly increasing. If anything, the US dollar is…

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was on Charlie Rose the day before yesterday explaining his position on alleged "currency manipulation" by the Chinese. This quote stands out as defining his position: What’s happening is, as…

Earlier this week I had a debate on TV with a local economist on the subject of trade relations. We had the same debate about six and twelve months ago and in each case while I argued that the trade problems were almost intractable and…

The U.S. Senate will pass legislation geared to pressuring China to revalue its currency and the US is set to label China a currency manipulator. The view in Washington ahead of the mid-terms is that China is "the bad guy" as Paul…

We have heard this de-coupling theme for quite a few years now. The theory is that high-growth emerging markets are becoming less reliant on the U.S. and therefore are immune to exogenous shocks from the U.S. The video from Russia Today TV…

Note the reserve amounts in this post have been amended to reflect the $200 billion increase instead of the $20 billion originally cited. There are four developments in China to note today. First, China reported that its reserves jumped…

Here is something interesting.  The Chinese have reversed policy on diversification into the yen. It was my assumption that the Japanese government's objections would be acknowledged by the Chinese and that they were not the most…

In regards to Ed's last post on China and trade, the position of Michael Pettis is much closer to mine (and Martin Wolf's, which he expressed yesterday in the FT).  The quote of Pettis that Ed cites does not invalidate my position at…

The global economy, now supported in the main only by the overextended U.S. consumer, finds itself at stall speed, susceptible to any number of potential exogenous shocks. Ultimately, the economic malaise created by this confluence of…