The meeting of the European Central Bank is taking place this week and the majority of analysts are in unusual agreement. They all concur that Draghi and the ECB governors as a whole have no real options left. It is pretty easy to see why the head of the German Bundesbank – Axel Weber – [...]
Not surprisingly, the IMF has followed the lead of other international economic forecast groups in moving global GDP forecasts downward for 2013. Part of the drive is that we are ending the first quarter – and finally have a barometer of how various key markets are trending. So, an adjustment of some kind is normal, [...]
It comes as no shock but the US is really a global economy now. To some extent it always has been but in the last ten to twenty years the economy has become ever more dependent on the export sector. That has been a good thing for the most part and the improvement in the [...]
A few years ago the most arresting concept in the People’s Republic of China was that “to get rich is beautiful”. After decades of those little blue Mao suits, reeducation camps for the “capitalists” and a single minded effort to create the people’s state China reversed course and elected to become a nation of wealth [...]
In a report that surprised analysts, Mexican Industrial Output fell by 1.2%. This figure is an annualized estimate – and reverses what was a 1.7% increase seen in last month’s report. Analysts are connecting this drop in the IPI to a slower global demand rate for products – and not the attractiveness of Mexico [...]
This certainly comes as no shock but the mess in Cyprus has had some profound implications for the euro. It has been falling against the dollar, pound and yen and most of the currency traders are convinced that the decline is far from over. The decision to assess the large depositors a hefty fee made [...]
The meltdown of the Cypriot banks has dominated the headlines in Europe and the coverage of the situation usually says more about the reporter than it does about the crisis itself. The dominant view is that the two biggest banks in Cyprus fell apart because they have become nothing more than a money laundering outfit [...]
You may have already seen this – it’s making most media outlets today. But an Australian store is dealing with showrooming (the process of using a brick-and-mortar retail store to shop – and then purchase those items online elsewhere) in an extreme way. The store will charge customers a $5 “just browsing” fee. If a [...]
Port Said sits on the Suez Canal and it provides a key link for crude oil and shipments that move through the venerable “tight” canal region. Friday, military forces under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood led government of Egypt took over control of security for the port city. Police essentially have withdrawn after [...]
We can forget some of the positive banter coming out of the ECB and others about how much better the Eurozone economy is getting. One of the headlines we saw out of the French press was that “France has yet to hit bottom – under Hollande“. Remember when the Socialist President imposed the wealth tax? [...]
