In talking to the FT’s Gillian Tett, Hugh Hendry of The Eclectica Fund makes the hilarious metaphor of China as Santa Claus bringing gifts to a world constrained by excessive Western government debt issuance.  But, Hendry thinks the Asian surplus countries are the most exposed and most vulnerable because they are excessively dependent on foreign [...]

From the London School of Economics website:
Below is an audio recording of approximately 78 minutes where Gillian Tett takes us inside the shadowy world of complex finance and derivatives and explains how the business of slicing and dicing debt led us to the devastating global credit crunch.
Gillian Tett has worked as a journalist for the [...]

Today I saw two blurbs about Eastern Europe which I want to pull together with a bit of added commentary about the automakers in the U.S.  The first blurb had to do with the Baltics and their probable downgrade to junk by the ratings agencies.  This is what Win Thin, a Senior Currency Strategist at [...]

Gillian Tett has written in the Financial Times that the Obama Administration is no talking to the Swedes directly about their solution to the credit crisis, suggesting a openness to potential banking crisis solutions. Next week, Bo Lundgren, now head of the Swedish debt office, but formerly a Deputy Finance Minister under Carl Bildt, is scheduled to meet with American officials in Washington. For those of us who see positives in the Swedish crisis solution, this is positive news.

Gillian Tett makes a good point in today’s FT about the clear benefits of a systemic solution to crisis. Where the UK policy makers were bumbling along until today, they have taken the problem firmly in hand, finally recognizing the systemic risk. Tett sees this sensible policy as one hearkening back to the Swedish solution last decade. The U.S. would do well to take notice.