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By Marc Chandler The market continues to digest the meaning and implications of Moody's decision to cut Spain's rating to Aa2 from Aa1. The two main considerations behind Moody's decision is that the cost to restructure the banks will be…

Mexico central bank kept rates steady at 4.5% today, as expected. However, it tilted a little more to the hawkish side and supports our view that tightening is likely to start in Q4 11 and not Q1 12 as market is pricing in. Central bank…

By Marc Chandler The government submits a budget. Their majority in one house allows it to be passed there. The opposition is trying to obstruct it and it is raising concern about the world's largest public debt. This is not the US, but…

Here's a morning note from UBS' Andy Lees in London on core inflation that made me think. Andy writes: Opinion – By focussing on core inflation rather than headline inflation, central banks are making a major policy mistake. Because…

It turns out, according to most interpretations of the SAFE report, that the speculators creating the hot-money inflows are not the much-vilified foreign hedge funds – surprise, surprise – but Chinese businessmen bringing money into the…

Frederick J. Sheehan is the author of Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession  (McGraw-Hill, 2009) and "The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond…

By Michael Pettis Most of this week’s newsletter was about the release last week of China’s fourth quarter GDP growth numbers by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). You can find the full NBS report on their website, but here is the…

Here are a bunch of the participants from this year's Barron's Investor Roundtable discussion talking to Michael Santoli about the ideas they expressed.

From today's Breakfast with Dave research note at Gluskin Sheff (highlighting added): An energy policy that truly removes U.S. dependence on foreign oil (shale case, coal, nuclear). A complete rewrite of the tax code that promotes…

by Michael Pettis Once again I am starting to hear investors tell me that they have been advised by bank analysts not to worry too much about the impact of a banking crisis in China.  According to this argument, China has developed a…