After being pummeled by a concurrent stock and real estate crash, Japanese officials by late 1992 felt that enough was enough. The Nikkei 225 stock index that was nearly 40,000 toward the end of 1989 had crashed to below 15,000 by August 1992. From that point, however, Japanese stocks had started rising again. Through the summer of 1992, things looked [...]
In another case of government meeting reality, Saudi Arabia sacked its long-serving Finance Minister at the end of October. In a move reminiscent of the recent shakeup in Beijing’s Finance Ministry, with longstanding technocrat Lou Jiwei being ousted, Saudi Arabia has had to face up to more than just oil prices. Ibrahim al-Assaf had been in that position since 1996, [...]
Clichés are clichés for a reason, largely because their meaning no longer requires precision in order to communicate information. Because of that, their use is usually limited to cultural exchanges, being largely shunned in areas when technical proficiency requires a high level of exactitude. Economics and finance in more recent years, really since August 2007, seemed to have shifted more [...]
The rout in EM’s continued into this week, suggesting that the negative reactions last week may have been more than reflexive recoiling to whatever catalyst. The media is struggling to figure it out, and so has brought up the usual suspects even though there is great inconsistency in doing so. Expectations of fiscal stimulus, infrastructure spending and reflationary policies under [...]
Where are we in history when the avowed Socialist (capital “S”) from Vermont is the only voice of reason for the Democratic Party in the aftermath of last week’s election? I don’t intend to make this some kind of political screed against one party or the other; I am on record numerous times claiming the America we live in of [...]
These things evolve, and they take time. There are a great many similarities between what is going on now and what happened in 2007 and 2008 pertaining to money, then finance, finally economy. Starting August 2007, the eurodollar system fell apart in condensed fashion, almost a typical “run” if but one of and between only banks. Starting in August 2011, [...]
China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) reported a large drop in forex assets in October. This was unsurprising given what we already know of “dollar” conditions from the behavior of the exchange rate itself. The pattern is by now very well established and quite predictable. At -$45.73 billion for the month, it was by far the largest decline in [...]
There are many facets to gold, which is as it should be. In trying to discern what ones are moving prices at any given moment, the complexities and really its duality can cloud the matter, often greatly. From the post-1971 traditional perspective, it is believed the preeminent inflation hedge. In financial terms, it is sensitive to shifts in relative interest [...]
The BLS reported that the rate of hiring in the US continues to be sluggish and sideways. Total hiring across the labor market was estimated to be 5.08 million (SA) in September, down from August and the second slowest rate this year. Since first surpassing 5 million back in September 2014, the overall pace of employer engagement has been largely [...]
When I first started some years ago, the guy I worked for told me to prepare myself because this business is so often just stupid. It does make sense given the high stakes and pressure, where everybody is literally trying to outsmart everybody else every minute of every day. And those kinds of conditions, variable as they are, lead to [...]
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