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 [...]

The conventional wisdom is that the US is beholden to foreign agents as they hold much of the US government debt.  In this view, if these agents sell their securities, interest rates in America should increase as demand for US public debt evaporates.
Now comes evidence that China is indeed selling.  The BBC reports.
China reduced its [...]

10-Year TIPS were sold with a Bid/Cover ratio of 2.51.  Almost half of the securities went to indirect bidders, meaning central banks are still bidding for U.S. government debt.
Obviously, there is no problem for Treasuries despite the huge supply.
The positive interpretation here is that there is still a significant bid for U.S. debt despite all [...]

It seems like a long time off, but the Fed is going to eventually have to withdraw all of the excess liquidity it has created when the economy recovers.  However, doing so will prove tricky.  First, we have debt deflationary situation in the United States which could lead to a serious double-dip if a restrictive [...]

As I write this, the U.S. dollar has fallen to new 8-month lows against the British Pound and oil.  Sterling is up over 2 big figures to 1.6371 while oil (WTI crude front month contract) has marched up near $68 a barrel.  Clearly the sell the dollar meme is still in effect in this new [...]

Marshall Auerback here with some thoughts on the UK given the recent stellar performance of Sterling.
“The Conservative belief that there is some law of nature which prevents men from being employed, that it is ‘rash’ to employ men, and that it is financially ‘sound’ to maintain a tenth of the population in idleness for an [...]

I want to use this holiday weekend to fill in some gaps on major issues because I think we are at a key turning point. Because the economy has left the freefall stage and I have been more positive, I have been getting the feeling that I am the bull in a room of bears.  [...]

You have probably seen stocks down today.  The dow is off nearly 200 points and the Nasda is down 50.  But, everything American is getting whacked today. The U.S. dollar, stocks, and bonds.  Look at the chart on Treasurys here – especially the long end.

Something is happening in terms of how investors see the risk [...]

It is not just the Chinese making noises about the reliability of the United States as a debtor.  Now, Japanese politicians are doing it too.  In fact, the Democratic Party of Japan (which is not in power) have said they would not buy U.S. bonds if elected.  An excerpt from a BBC story covering these [...]

Jeremy Grantham is out with his quarterly update. And he has a number of investment themes worth mentioning.  First, I should mention that his global outlook is fairly downbeat:
We are experiencing the most severe synchronized global downturn in several generations. While governments have been quick to react, there are limits to what policy can do [...]