currency wars

By Daniel Gros, Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels Switzerland has pegged its currency to the euro at a level that helps it sustain a 12% current-account surplus and one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe.…

By Marc Chandler The Swiss National Bank does not miss an opportunity to remind market participants that it is determined to cap the Swiss franc's appreciation. The cost of imposing its will appears to be rising. The Financial Times today…

Germany and Papademos have ended Greece’s political sovereignty, but Greece gave up its economic sovereignty long ago when it adopted the euro. Two aspects of national economic sovereignty were inherently lost with nations that gave up…

This is a gold level post. I want to flag this as an issue since no one seems to be talking about it. Brazil's economy has slowed very sharply of late and along with slowdowns in India and China, it says that the global economy will get…

Central banks' ability to surprise the market remains even in these trying times. It was the Bank of Japan's turn today. It surprised the market in two ways. First, it expanded its asset purchase plan by JPY10 trillion ($128 bln).…

Deficit fatigue has set in as large scale deficit spending has become politically unacceptable. Austerity is now in. This has caused a recession throughout Europe and weakened the US. To counteract this fiscal retrenchment, monetary…

Jim Rickards, author of Currency Wars, was on capital Account last night and he thinks both QE3 and war with Iran are distinct possibilities. Take a look.

In January, I wrote my prognosis for 2011. The title was "Cautiously Optimistic Into 2011". I intend to write another post like this early in 2012 with asset allocation and market calls for the new newsletter. But right now I just want to…

The most important debate of our lifetimes is now ongoing. The question: Should the ECB “write the check’ for the euro area national governments? In thinking about the answer to this all-important question, I prefer to shift the focus by…

Here are a few excerpts from Stephen Roach’s latest at Project Syndicate.