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As I am still away for the week, you have seen a lot of posts from others. I do still have a lot of links though, and may do two (or three) for today. Here is the first batch.  Enjoy!
Edward
Irony: Greek Banks Aren’t the Most Exposed – International Trader – Europe – Jonathan Buck – [...]

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Claus Vistesen here with a first post on Credit Writedowns.
GDP releases are, by their very nature, lagging indicators and thus do not tell us a whole lot about the current momentum in an economy. Moreover, the immediate focus of attention in the Eurozone remains, and rightly so, the situation in Greece (and Spain), and what [...]

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The following is a post by Marc Chandler, head of Brown Brother Harriman’s Currency Strategy Team. For more of BBH’s currency views, visit the website here.
The great Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran once wrote that sometimes the mountain is clearer from the plane than the summit.  This insight may be applied to the foreign exchange [...]

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The Absolute Return Letter, February 2010
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for [...]

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On a number of occasions, I have pointed to the sectoral balances model of finance to help demonstrate what happens when the government sector runs a deficit or a surplus. A recent article in the Financial Times by Martin Wolf on Japan’s woes highlights this subject and demonstrates how government deficits balance private sector saving. [...]

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Given the fact that I have just finished writing two articles on Wien’s predictions for 2010, I thought it relevant to look back at the last three years of Wien’s surprises to just before the housing crisis.  I posted the 2009 predictions last year. The post is here.  Wien calls these events that he gives [...]

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Last night on CBS’ 60 Minutes, President Obama attacked Wall Street as “fat cats,” saying he was not elected merely for their sake. Obviously, the President is now keenly aware of how his political capital is being lost due to the bailout program earlier in the year. He is doing some serious damage control. But [...]

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A friend Scott caught this article on Bloomberg about the latest economic figures out of Japan:
Japan’s economy expanded less than a third of the pace initially reported in the three months to September as companies slashed spending.
Gross domestic product rose at an annual 1.3 percent pace, slower than the 4.8 percent reported in preliminary figures [...]

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As I indicated earlier today, I generally see protectionism not as a second-best argument like Paul Krugman, but as something to avoid entirely.  Nevertheless, calls for more protectionism are being heard everywhere.  Gregory Clark, an Australian Professor who is a vice president at Akita International University in Japan, has made the case for protectionism against [...]

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"This is definitely a threat on the horizon," said Blaise Ganguin, the agency’s European credit chief.
Some 75 companies large enough to be rated face likely default in 2010 as the slow-burn effects of the crisis hit home. The default rate peaked near 13pc this year, the highest since S&P began to collect data.

This [...]