Archive for the ‘Currency’ Category
“The department [China's Organization Department] is plagued by constant tension that bedevils most political systems. The Politburo has striven to professionalize the selection of top officials through the department, while undermining the process at the same time by fixing appointments in favor of loyalist and relatives. Powerful officials presiding over local fiefdoms have swept aside [...]
We don’t specialize in the stock market, but we spend a lot of time trying to understand why the stock market, as a whole, might rise or fall. It helps us understand capital flows across and between global financial markets.
Much ink has been spilled lately about a “real” recovery in the US having arrived [...]
Watching the rise in US long-bond yields got me to wondering: What if the fall in the Japanese and Chinese current account surpluses continues, i.e. this trend is for real?
US Current Account Deficit (black) vs. 30-yr US Treasury Bond Yield (blue):
If so, it means both countries recycle less of their yen and yuan, [...]
“We will improve policies that encourage consumption.”
- Wen Jiabao
Let me ask: what have China’s central planners now admitted is integral in supporting sustainable Chinese economic growth?
New emphasis on consumption-led growth to rebalance the lopsidedness of investment growth that’s currently compensating for softer export growth
The need to cool speculative bubbles within the economy so as [...]
It has been quite the move in the last two weeks. Especially after crude oil lulled everyone to sleep for about three months, even though the tension in the Middle East (particularly Iran) grew slowly and steadily.
Well, that tension is still building as Israel leans towards aggression, Iran stands its ground, and the outside [...]
“The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision.”
-George Eliot
So we have witnessed a roughly streak of risk appetite across the markets. A whopping 10 out of the last 13 weeks the S&P 500 has closed higher than the prior week’s close.
US stocks have undergone a tight and steady [...]
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”
-Karl Marx
Current Currency Conundrum: Dollar and Euro dependence is a huge risk. But there is no other choice it seems!
In the last installment of as the world turns towards chaos, aka Currency Currents, I discussed the massive debt problems we face and described why this may lead to below-capacity [...]
In my Commodities Essential newsletter a few weeks ago I spoke about George Soros. He’s in the thick of it again, and I’m talking about him again. But first, here are a few of my comments from January 27:
Soros has an ability to put a finger on global capital flow and its catalysts like few others. The [...]
Quotable
“Most attempts to find out what nations really are have suffered from an intrinsic defect: they have been attempts to define the general concept of nationality. People have said that the nation is this or that, apparently believing that all that mattered was to find the right definition; once found, this would be applicable to [...]
I hit the brakes when I saw this headline:
China may need to export car surplus
While China is by no means the only large consumer of crude oil, the country’s growth trends have been reason enough to be bullish. We’re told the demand for automobiles and the Western lifestyle will mean higher crude oil [...]
