interest rates

The resilience of the euro in the face of seemingly incontrovertible evidence that Portugal will need to get assistance and that very same program and approach has not been enough to stabilize the Greek and Irish situation is amazing.…

Is the global saving glut to blame for global imbalances? This column argues that the role played by loose monetary policy from the US Federal Reserve should not be overlooked. The prolonged decline in long-term interest rates in the…

Reuters has reported that the parliament in Portugal will likely reject the socialist government's austerity budget, a move which will precipitate the collapse of that government, new elections and a likely bailout by the European Union.…

By Warren Mosler (as posted on the 10th) Also see other similar arguments from Credit Writedowns' on how quantitative easing really works. Background information first, answer later- The Fed sets the fed funds target at their…

This morning the Chinese central bank lifted the reserve requirement for banks another 50 basis points to a record 20% in order to curb speculation. The Chinese have been forced to tighten monetary policy due to inflation concerns and…

By Warren Mosler As previously discussed, the US should outlaw the use of libor by its banking system. It makes no sense to allow US dollar rate setting for our banks to be set overseas by the BBA. Setting our banking system’s dollar…

By Win Thin Malaysia central bank surprised the markets by hiking the statutory reserve requirement 100 bp bp while leaving policy rates unchanged at 2.75%. The bank noted that “While the stance of monetary policy is expected to remain…

By Win Thin Local Brazil analysts are saying that new measures to curb currency appreciation are basically ready to go. Finance Minister Mantega has reportedly not decided yet if he is going to release details today or not, and that he is…

China threw in a surprise trade deficit number this past month. However, It looks to be a one off. UBS' Andy Lees in London explains: The February trade numbers slipped to a deficit of USD7.3bn. The number is usually volatile at this…

Portugal does not appear to have had the boom that Ireland and Spain had. Portugal's problem is the chronic grind loss of competitiveness due to high costs and low productivity. We note that Portugal's latest inflation reading of 3.6% in…