May 2011

Legislation to modify debit-card interchange fees cannot compete with celebrity gossip. It is not surprising that lobbying efforts have changed the minds of 19 senators who formerly aligned themselves with consumers and small banks (to…

Forget about gold for the time being. Investors need to own cash - currency, simply as a hedge against the risk of another derivatives mess down the line.

The financial repression that is being discussed is not in developing countries but in the advanced industrialized countries. The ostensible goal is to support the government bond markets. Moral suasion, the cajoling of investors are soft…

Europe’s monetary union is simply one of the most important experiments of our time. Can the countries whose wars against each other shaped to a large extent the past millennium, if not longer, form a sustainable monetary union without…

Jim Rogers is bullish on Asia. In a twenty-minute interview with the BBC, he explains why? Hat tip Paul Kedrosky. Like Paul, "I find many of his rhetorical tricks maddening" but it is an informative interview nonetheless. Videos below

The Federal Reserve will be on easy street for a long time to come. Real interest rates will remain low, meaning debtors will be favoured over savers. Investors in fixed–income will take it on the chin.

The personal savings rate came in at 4.9%, the lowest since October 2008 before the Lehman crisis caused savings rates to jump up. Below are a few charts for a historical perspective.

Although the overall reported headline rate for the GDP remained essentially unchanged, the numbers reflected somewhat weaker consumer contributions and anemic "real final sales".

Listen to what Jeffrey Gundlach has to say about subprime bonds -- yes subprime. Hint: he thinks banks will have to take more credit writedowns.

Australian Professor Steve Keen explains why private sector debt dynamics drove both the Great Depression and the Great Recession.