monetary policy

There are several noteworthy developments from China.   The first, while still a bit sketchy, seems the most promising.  President Hu seemed to signal an acceleration of infrastructure construction in the western part of…

A number of sources are reporting that the Chinese have been loading up on JGBs despite their relatively low yields. Is this a flight to quality by the Chinese central bank? Andy Lees of UBS shows that the magnitude of the purchases…

The first real warning that growth in the global economy was set to decline came in April. And since then, the signs of distress have only increased. In the US, the distress is everywhere – in the housing data, the employment figures, and…

By Annaly Capital Management. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of Annaly Salvos, and we thought we would take advantage of this milestone to revisit the graph at the heart of our very first post. It is a snapshot of the…

Frederick Sheehan is the author of Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession (McGraw-Hill, 2009). Federal Reserve economist Kartik Athreya has written what all Federal…

The U.S. long bond yield is edging lower with each and every passing day, and now stands below 3.90%. At the same time, we cannot help but notice the huge gap that still exists between 10s and 30s — nearly 100 basis points. There is…

From BBH's Win Thin The IMF just released its quarterly report on currency shares of global reserves.  In Q1 10, the dollar’s share fell slightly to 61.5% from 62.2% in Q4, while the euro’s share fell to 27.2% from 27.3% in Q4 and…

The IMF provides the most authoritative data on the currency composition of reserves.  It is reported at the end of the quarter for the proceeding quarter.  Tomorrow it is expected to report reserve holdings as of the end of Q1…

A post by Annaly Capital Management Some recent economic data (like today’s downwardly-revised “final” reading on 1Q 2010 GDP) have suggested that the economic recovery is waning. Not surprisingly, talk of additional stimulus has started…

The decision to leave rates on hold was an easy one for the Fed to make.  The Fed still anticipates this will be the case for an extended period.  The statement seemed to recognize some of the less favorable data since it met…