Post Tagged with: "Britain"
UK Manufacturing Data Soft, Dollar and Sterling Weak
BBH CurrencyView US dollar continues to weaken ahead of tomorrow’s ECB and BoE meeting UK manufacturing much weaker than expected; Swiss CPI exceeds estimates Euro remains resilient ahead of ECB meeting; Portugal raises €1 bn in auction The dollar continues to weaken, paring yesterday’s gains, ahead of tomorrow’s policy decision from the ECB and BoE,
Thoughts on Austerity
Yesterday, Paul Krugman wrote: Portugal’s government has just fallen in a dispute over austerity proposals. Irish bond yields have topped 10 percent for the first time. And the British government has just marked its economic forecast down and its deficit forecast up. What do these events have in common? They’re all evidence that slashing spending
Isn’t that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer sleeping during the budget debate?
Apparently, George Osborne, the current Chancellor, has such a bedroom voice that he puts the Lord Chancellor to sleep. Sweet dreams
UBS Faces LIBOR Manipulation Probe
By Warren Mosler As previously discussed, the US should outlaw the use of libor by its banking system. It makes no sense to allow US dollar rate setting for our banks to be set overseas by the BBA. Setting our banking system’s dollar rates is the Fed’s responsibility. And, to further make the point, note
Does the rise in UK house prices change the underlying picture?
Nationwide Chief Economist Robert Gardner doesn’t think so? Yesterday, he spoke on CNBC Europe about why he sees continued housing stagnation in the UK. Gardner says an improvement in the labour market is what the UK needs to see the housing market improve. This is a 2012 event in his opinion. On the Nationwide website,
Nationwide: House pries down again in the UK in January
The latest Nationwide House Price Index update is out showing a decline of 0.1% in January 2011. That brings house prices down 1.1% since this time last year. Nationwide has a new Chief Economist, Robert Gardner, who writes: "The property market entered 2011 with a whimper rather than a bang, with house prices edging down
On Britain’s Austerity and Rosenberg’s Depiction of Obama as Herbert Hoover
I have written a post or two offering the opinion that Barack Obama faces an economy more akin to Herbert Hoover’s than Franklin Roosevelt. See "Barack Obama as Herbert Hoover" where posited the following: My intent here is not to malign Obama, Roosevelt or Hoover or make facile comparison but to identify important differences between
Robert Skidelsky on John Maynard Keynes
Good interview and interesting analysis of the personal history of Lord Keynes. Skidelsky does a good job of describing Keynesianism in 15 minutes. My main criticism is that I feel he failed to adequately address the malinvestment issue i.e. the concept that ‘waste’ could be too large for stimulus to be long-term effective. He did
Dollar Ends the Year on a Whimper, UK House Prices Better Than Expected
from the BBH Currency Strategy Team The US dollar is softer on the last trading day of the year with position squaring likely the main driver. With the economic calendar light, the euro traded in narrow ranges throughout most of the session until early European interest saw it pop up to $1.3385 from $1.3300. Sterling
British Households Facing Price Squeeze
What accounts for the difference in inflation paths in the UK and the US? In America, we have disinflation, causing the Federal Reserve to conduct a second round of quantitative easing. But in the UK, we have accelerating inflation. Policymakers will say they don’t want this because of the squeeze on households. But, clearly it
Dollar Firm but Sterling Stellar
Highlights The US dollar was just about evenly split across the board versus the G10 with large gains versus yen, but largely down versus sterling and CAD. Meanwhile, the EUR whipsawed between $1.37 and $1.38, and as London came in was at the upper end of that range. The yen similarly jumped around, though pushed
Chart of the Day: The World’s Top 50 Banks (bubble chart version)
I have written a few posts showing you the ranking for the big banks globally, with a special emphasis on Europe because of systemic risk. But here’s a great bubble chart that gives you a visual on the relative size of the big banks globally. (Hat tip Barry Ritholtz). Of the large countries on this