I just finished reading a Financial Times article about the likely coordinated global policy solutions to emerge from the upcoming G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh.  It does not sound like there is a huge amount of consensus. Indeed, it sounds like there is a lot of finger pointing regarding what the true causes of the financial [...]

The U.S. Dollar fell to its lowest against the Swiss Franc and Euro, while the Canadian dollar and the Scandinavian currencies are also near year highs as well.  If you read Bloomberg, you might think this has to do with a bullish equity market call as the dollar’s status as a safe haven is less [...]

In the latest move toward China’s long-term strategy of internationalising its currency, the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced today it will issue government bonds valued at 6 billion yuan in Hong Kong.
The last article I wrote on this subject was a little over a week ago when the Chinese Vice-Premier Wang opined that the [...]

According to an account published in the Daily Telegraph by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the Chinese government is quite anxious about money printing in the United States and the effect this printing could have on China’s dollar denominated reserve assets.
For months now, the Chinese have signalled growing unease with U.S. monetary policy. And now comes the clearest [...]

Chinese vice-premier Wang Qishan has been appointed to lead a taskforce to make the renminbi the currency of choice for trade settlements, especially with regional trading partners. HSBC economist Qu Hongbin believes this latest salvo in China’s intensifying efforts to ditch the dollar demonstrates the Chinese are moving sooner than most expect to internationalise their [...]

This skit comes from Saturday Night Live in 2005, back when the Dollar was weak.   It’s pretty funny. Hat Tip Andrew.

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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 [...]

This comes via Brown Brothers Harriman. I have highlighted the parts of particular note.
Macroeconomic Update:
The economy has slowed along with the rest of the world, as China has become much more dependent on trade as it integrates with the global economy.  However, growth is showing signs of picking up after China policy-makers used aggressive stimulus [...]

The Economist released its remarkably telling Big Mac Index this past weekend.  The index looks at the relative cost of Big Mac in various countries to gauge how over- or undervalued the currencies in those locales are.  Judging from this Index, there are some monster distortions in the currency markets right now.

The numbers marked [...]

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 [...]