currencies

The Japanese yen was hands down the best performing G10 currency in April, gaining about 3.3% against the dollar and 4.2% against the euro. It appeared to start the new month on a strong note, with the dollar falling to 2 month lows in…

The details are a bit better as household consumption was stronger at 2.9% after a 2.1% pace in Q4 11. This accounted for about 2 percentage points of the 2.2% growth. How is the consumption being financed? Real disposable income rose 0.4%…

Professor Steve Keen was on Tonight with Vincent Browne in Ireland last week, where the topic understandably was the European Union. The question for Steve was how the Maastricht Treaty fits his economic paradigm, which follows Hyman…

The string of developments has encouraged risk-off behavior. Equity markets are lower. Core bonds are higher. The high beta currencies, such as the freely traded emerging market currencies, the Australian and Canadian dollars, the euro,…

It is a ploy that would no doubt bring a smile to the faces of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli. First, China is giving up something that it is not really using. Specifically, the current band itself has rarely, if ever been utilized, which is why…

Rising tensions in Europe continues to be a dominant force in the foreign exchange market, with the euro briefly dipping below the $1.30 level for the first time since mid-February.

China's Q1 GDP disappointed expectations and market rumors and is the chief driver of the capital markets today. The official measure of growth was 8.1%. The consensus was 8.4% before yesterday's rumors of a 9% rise made the rounds and…

In recent days, policy makers have been most noticeable by their absence. This absence has weakened their credibility and encouraging speculative attention. This is true for Switzerland, Europe and Japan.

Thus far the SNB has successfully blocked the Swiss franc's appreciation relatively cheaply. Compare the bang it got from about CHF18 bln intervention last year with the record operations by Japanese officials. The SNB has various ways it…

Below is the video clip from 60 Minuted giving the average viewer a better sense of what is going on in Europe right now. The video is timely given the problems Spain and Italy are having with their government debt levels rising. Spain is…