currencies

The problem cannot simply be a problem of current account imbalances—we’ve got them all across the US states. And the US, itself, runs a chronic current account deficit. But the US federal government is sovereign, it issues its own…

The large increases in Target2 imbalances at the heart of the euro zone's banking system are widely considered not just a risk to national governments in the event of a eurozone breakup, but also a sign of capital flight. We have seen the…

I was on RT's Capital Account on Monday afternoon, talking about the euro crisis yet again. The video is below but I have a few comments before you watch it. In the video, I say Europe can continue dithering for quite a while. There is…

Hans-Werner Sinn is the sometimes controversial head of Germany's Ifo Institute, A German-based center for economic studies. He has been in the news for his warnings about the Target2 system at the heart of trans-national money clearance in…

I highly recommend the FT article on China's 1% in the links below. They bring up the capital flight problem that a Chinese hard landing might mean. I noted last April that Victor Shih gave a talk at INET on the Fragile State of China’s FX…

This is a quick note here on Latin American economies where currency issues are the main story. Argentina has been most often in the news, but the slowdown in Brazil should be top on the radar. I also note that some European banks are…

It was not the news stream, which was poor to say the least. The flash European PMI and German IFO warns that even the German economy may be fizzling. UK Q1 GDP was revised down. Yet by the news hit the euro selling appears to exhaust…

I have written quite a few posts highlighting the statements made by Herbert Hoover during his US presidency as he struggled with the economic contraction of the Great Depression. The general tenor of Hoover's comments and actions goes to…

"The German government has, for the first time, released hundreds of pages of documents from 1994 to 1998 on the introduction of the euro and the inclusion of Italy in the euro zone."

It encourages me to see Portugal fade from the headlines instead of becoming the next Greece. But it discourages me to see Spain take Portugal's place as the next Greece. All the while, the root problem has been the same: the common…