money

I wrote a note regarding the Q1 2009 GDP report which mentioned that the price deflator showed a large pick up in actual inflation. While I don't think we are off to the races immediately, I do see inflation as a medium-term threat and this…

Marshall Auerback here. Yesterday, Ed made a big to-do about China's increase in gold reserves. I am going to take a different view here. CLSA is saying that the increase is from purification and miscellaneous transactions since all…

China is really looking at a lot of other options to get away from the U.S. dollar. The latest report is that it has been building huge gold reserves. There is no doubt that China wants to get out and away from the U.S. dollar now. We…

We are a few weeks into earnings season and it should be abundantly clear that financial institutions are firing on all cylinders.  In fact, financials are leading the broader market for the first time since 1993.  Yet, loan losses have…

Jim Grant is definitely not in the deflation camp. He believes a robust policy response and enormous expansion in the Fed balance sheet is storing up monster inflationary forces which could take holding a recovery. As a result, he is…

This is a re-post that I hope serves as a reminder that although we are NOT talking about a liquidity crisis in the financial sector, but rather a solvency crisis, liquidity remains very much a concern. This post, despite being 6 months…

This comes from Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman: China appears to be an offensive of sorts. The governor of the PBOC proposed evolving the SDR as an alternative reserve asset. China has announced CNY60 bln of swap lines with a…

I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but the Chinese have been making a lot of muscular moves diplomatically. While shifts in balance of power often take decades, it is increasingly apparent that China is making a strategic move in that…

In the wake of recent statements by Chinese officials about the dollar and dollar assets (see our previous comments here, here and here), it does seem like the Chinese are avoiding dolar-based transactions: China and Argentina have made…

Two weeks ago, the Fed roiled bond markets by signalling it would start to purchase Treasury bonds with printed money - the very definition of inflation.   Now, its the ECB's turn to show it can inflate with the best of them.  They have…