United States

By Marc Chandler There has been sharp rise in US interest rates and the dollar in the immediate response to the Federal Reserve's statement. The key it seemed was the expectation that federal funds would be at 1% at the end of next year.…

In 1845, the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, a breakaway territory from the Republic of Mexico. This annexation created great hostility between the US and Mexico, leading to the Mexican-American war in 1846. The events are 170…

Recent economic and geopolitical events should be seen through a longer-term strategic lens. During the Cold War, we lived in a bipolar world dominated by the US and its Allies on one side and the Soviets and their vassal states on the…

Credit growth in the US seems to have stabilized and may be on the rise. It's worth mentioning that the bottom in loan growth just happened to correspond to the start of Fed's taper. Coincidence? Maybe. But why is corporate America…

US data have been better European periphery market access continues to improve Dollar weakness may be China-related Gold continues to get safe haven bid China’s slowing more likely to be abrupt Ukraine has become a military issue;…

Talk that Russia could be behind the bulk of the more than $100 bln drop in the Federal Reserve's custody holdings for foreign central banks, in the week ending Wednesday has many observers scratching their heads. This would represent about…

By Marc Chandler US retail sales rose 0.3% in February, a little more than expected. The news was blunted by sharp downward revisions to the January series, leaving the level of retail sales lower and pointing to somewhat less personal…

While the credit expansion/savings reduction needs to continue to grow to support GDP growth, the credit expansion/savings reduction doesn’t need to ‘spike up’ proactively as it does when the fiscal tightening is proactive.

Here is a chart showing the number of transactions that involve acquisitions of an asset management business by year. It tells us about a couple of trends developing in recent years.

Themes for today: The US faces political constraints in a cyclical downturn that will limit government response The US private surplus is under assault Europe is improving and upgrades to bank stocks are bullish The Fed tends to…