Italy

I want to start today's daily with the markets and the real economy before I branch out into more political economy including Germany. European economic numbers And since I mentioned Germany, let me start there. A slew of economic data came…

Flight to liquidity reminiscent of January and February As the equities market sells off, it's worth noting how much the sovereign bond market is rallying at the same time. I am seeing the 10-year US Treasury bond quoted at 3.079%, well…

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirts with a 500 point decline, it's worth mentioning the flight to safety going on in the global bond markets. We are seeing major moves into sovereign bonds across currency areas. That has the US…

A segment on the Dutch news program Nieuwsuur prompted this post. Earlier today, I was looking at 10-year yields and noticed Italy jumping to over 3.7%. As I write this, the yield is 3.713%. And that's up from a low of 1.633% in the past…

1 - Saudi It looks as if US President Trump is trying to support the narrative that the Khashoggi assassination was a rogue interrogation gone wrong, allowing the Saudi government to escape sanction. But condemnation is so widespread, it's…

Italy's 10-year sovereign bond yield has risen from 1.78% at end of April and prior to the general election to 3.66%. That's the highest since the beginning of 2014 and the yield is still rising. Domestic banks and Italian life insurers are…

1 - Moody's: Widening income inequality will weigh on US credit profile Rising income and wealth inequality is a key social consideration that will affect the credit profile of the United States (Aaa stable) through multiple rating factors,…

In the past year, Italy has been a source of a lot of investor angst, with 10-year yields reaching levels not seen since 2014. Despite the simmering crisis there, I am not concerned about short- or medium-term outcomes because I believe the…

There was a slew of PMI data released yesterday. And the ISM released it's manufacturing numbers for the US as well. Almost all of the data were bullish and supports the idea that this economic expansion has legs for the rest of 2018 and…

Is the fiscal debate political or market-driven? The eponymous debate in the US over government spending, debt and deficits is whether the issues are fundamentally market-driven or politically-motivated. For example, recently Trump economic…