Europe

Interest rates will stay low for a long time - long as in years, not months. In the UK there is a risk that a weakening currency may lead to some modest increase in inflation but, generally speaking, inflation is not a problem, and all…

In the past two weeks, a lot has happened in Europe. I would say the general tenor of the news flow has been downbeat. Nevertheless, I am mostly positive on Europe. I don't see an imminent eurozone breakup, nor do I see a further dip into…

By Marc Chandler The ECB took an unprecedented step today. Part of its mantra has been that it does not pre-commit. Today it did. It indicated interest rates will be the same or lower for an extended period of time. Draghi, when pressed,…

Still contracting but at a reduced pace. Germany a bit worse and other up a bit may show the squeeze has caused a bit of a shift from Germany to other members as the pie continues to shrink?In any case, a reduced pace of deterioration does…

By Marc Chandler  The dollar is the king of castle, extending yesterday's post-Fed rally across the board. Emerging market currencies have been particularly hard hit and we note that the Turkish lira is at new record lows.  Asset markets…

Last week I wrote about the asset-price fuelled boom fading. Back then the biggest worry for the market was Japan and Abenomics. However, in reality the biggest concern is emerging markets. I gave you some reasons why last week. Here are a…

Spain and Italy reported today that the share of bad loans have continued to rise. There is nothing to suggest that this is the peak. In fact, further deterioration is likely.

A rout in global equities is taking shape with the decline led by Japan and emerging markets. Japan is now in bear market territory, with shares down over 20% from the high. But emerging markets are my main worry because of the real…

In the links today, the biggest threads outside of the NSA scandal were on Greece and Europe. I believe the economy there is bottoming and I want to discuss some of the news flow. There was also a rate decision by the Japanese central bank…

Europe has been postponing the recapitalisation of its banking sector. This column argues that it has been doing so for far too long. Without such a recapitalisation, the danger is that economic stagnation will continue for a long period,…