by Gregory

There is a lot of fuss and discussion lately about Bernanke and his last speech at the ASSA meeting in Atlanta, where he finally gave his views about the responsibility of the fed in the housing bubble. What an interesting timing! The speech can be summarized with this sentence: That conclusion suggests that the best response [...]

by James

The outlook for the Latvian Lat (LVL) has deteriorated somewhat since our last post on the topic (click here). The differences between Argentina and Latvia remain stark, and the case for the Latvian peg remains positive, but it is finely balanced. What has changed? Certainly, the economic situation has continued to deteriorate, but the major [...]

by James

The last week has seen a flurry of news about US banks seeking to payback their TARP money. At its first quarter results, Goldman Sachs announced a $5 bln share offering – sneaking ahead of more troubled capital raisers – to pay back TARP money. Others have followed since the stress test results were announced. Yesterday, [...]

by James

On economic matters, is a national leader a market commentator or a strategist? It was clear from the outset that Obama would disappoint some factions in his first 100 days, so broad were the expectations place on him. In the midst of an economic crisis, it is a catastrophe that he has disappointed so many [...]

by James

Two years ago, I would have laughed at this prospect, but by now I am more than ready for it. The major US banks need to be fully and temporarily nationalized. If Treasury succeeds with the plan it is developing, we may get partial nationalization. The latest capitalization involves an injection of convertible preferred shares [...]

by James

…Or, Don’t Open the Champagne Just Yet Markets rallied impressively on Monday, and in many parts of the world on Tuesday. But the US equity market stalled last night and the outlook is less bullish today. What happened to the bail-out party? Monday’s rally was justified by relief that politicians the world over have grasped [...]

by James

It is not usually a good idea to leave it to the politicians to fix things. Congress cannot really be blamed for its failure to pass the US Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act, but this weekend it has been a real struggle to reach the kind of consensus needed to bring global stability. Has enough been [...]

by James

With the Dow off by another 300 points today, it is worth pausing to look around a little. The market experienced its biggest ever point loss on Monday when the House of Representatives failed to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act. Now a revised bill has been passed in the Senate, with a bunch of [...]