inflation

This report is disturbing because of how the headline number masks real and troubling weakness in the more substantive details. Hopefully anyone trying to engineer the economy is basing their tinkering on better information than that…

This week we begin a new topic: functional finance. This will occupy us for the next several blog posts. Today we will lay out Abba Lerner’s approach to policy.

It is my view that the ECB is now the only thing between the economy and widespread bank failures, but I also concur that the consequence of this is a permanent outsourcing of the interbank market in Europe to the ECB's balance sheet and,…

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 dollar is broadly weaker as news developments remain mostly positive, boosting sentiment. North American session sees US November inflation; euro likely supported today on short-covering rally. RBI left rates on hold at 8.5%, as…

The dollar is broadly weaker as sentiment improves in the wake of an agreement on fiscal integration. European officials have struck what appears to be significant agreement; one of the costs is a new split in Europe as the UK and others…

News links from 2 December 2011 include links on the European sovereign debt crisis, the UK economy, the latest on mortgages and technology as well as other stories.

So here we are, with the ECB demanding deflationary austerity from the member nations in return for the limited bond buying that has been sustaining some semblance of national government solvency, not seeming to realize it can’t inflate…

As I have been saying at Credit Writedowns, the ECB’s opposition to monetising sovereign debt is not about inflation concerns but rather its resistance to moving into a politicised quasi-fiscal role.

The central bank intervened aggressively in September-October to limit TRY weakness, but it does not have a huge war chest like Brazil or Asia. Reserves were $84.4 bln at the end of October, down 10% from a peak of $93 bln in July. Reserves…