interest rates

The minutes of the Bank of England's most recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting demonstrate that Britain's monetary policy makers are all over the shop. Most committee members voted to keep rates at 5%, but there was also a vote…

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph in London is one of the more interesting reporters on the business scene. In today's Telegraph, he chronicles the depth and breadth of the global slowdown now taking form.However, the crux of his…

Despite my protestations that inflation is due to fall sharply over the next six months, I do have to point out that real interest rates are not only negative in the U.S. all the way across the curve, they are also negative in most of the…

This chart from the New York Times demonstrates visually what happens when the Fed lowers interest rates too much: it skews simple economic decisions like what type of mortgage product to use, often with unintended consequences. Similarly…

In an environment where the U.S. Dollar is rising and everything is falling, one needs to pay attention to the fine details. For me, its in the UK and its 5% base interest rate. Oil is now below $117 a barrel, so it stands to reason that…

Most Americans would have you believe that the U.S. Federal Reserve was entirely responsible for the monetary conditions which created the mother of all stock market bubbles after the LTCM bailout. Yes, the Fed was complicit in the…

AIG has long been one of the largest and best-capitalized insurance and financial-services organization in the world. Before recent scandals, it was one of a few S&P 500 corporations in the U.S. with a AAA rating. Yet, it just reported…

As we are now one year in to the credit crunch, it is obvious to anyone how widespread and deep this credit crisis really is. I have been doing a lot of thinking about the 'light at the end of the tunnel.' Quite frankly, there is none.…

My last two posts may leave the impression that I believe inflation to be the greatest concern facing the global economy. I certainly believe it is a problem but not the primary one. Deflation is the looming concern and much more…

In the US, the question has to be centered around consumer inflation expectations and what impact this will have on core inflation going forward. In Asia, the question is what impact will rising inflation have on interest rates and goods…