Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has a good piece on Iceland out today at the Telegraph. The main point of his article is that Iceland is emerging from crisis and depression in a relatively healthy state due to a fifty percent currency devaluation.  While, GDP will shrink by 7% this year in Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Estonia and many [...]

Every country has a problem child or two in the financial services sector. America has Citigroup and Bank of America. Britain has RBS and HBOS/Lloyds.  And Germany has Hypo Real Estate. 
I have been chronicling problems at the real estate lender on this blog for some time now and last posted on HRE in April [...]

For quite some time now I have been of the view that there are a number of striking similarities between the goings on in Ireland and those in California, none of them good.  Both locations have seen extraordinary rises in home prices turn to massive busts. As a result, both locales have seen depression-like collapses [...]

Late last year, I predicted that China, as a major exporter to the West, would feel a huge impact from the meltdown in the global economy, taking it’s growth rate down to 2% (See Top ten predictions for the 2009 global economy). Forgetting about the fact that data are highly suspect in China, I see [...]

Today, I came across two attempts to clarify allegedly misleading articles in the press. Both clarifications were made in regard to how the banking system clean-up in the U.S. is proceeding. I will present them to you in as neutral a tone as I can muster.  However, I should say I am sceptical as to [...]

The following post is up on Morgan Stanley’s website and highlights the degree to which money printing has become the policy tool of choice used by central bankers with which to fight this deflationary threat. I have highlighted the whole paragraph on the inflationary risk of all of this.

About a week ago I reported on an Austrian story that the EU was gearing up for a bailout of any eurozone members which found themselves in difficulty (see my post, “EU planning 200 billion euro package for Eastern Europe“. This report is now being confirmed by multiple sources including Joaquin Almunia, the economics commissioner of the European Union.

Judging from recent events, the bond vigilantes are right to suspect that Ben Bernanke is all talk and no action when it comes to keeping long-term rates low. If you recall, I had actually believed the Fed would support bonds because it was concerned about long-term interest rates. This is part of the reason I believed that Treasuries would rise despite being in bubble territory but it looks unlikely.

I am skeptical as to the economic benefits of the Eurozone. In my view, the Euro has always been more of a political construct than an economic one. Nevertheless, the Euro has functioned quite well as a leading international currency in the decade since its formation. However, the present financial crisis is revealing tensions within the Eurozone, the consequences of which are not readily apparent.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has picked up on the decline in trade flows that many have highlighted in recent months. This time, he looks at European-Asian trade flows and sees some major problems.