“What, me worry?” With the world’s eyes understandably focused on conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, another major purge out of China is flying under the radar. President Xi Jinping publicly eliminated one significant political rival last year – former Chongqing strongman Bo Xilai – and recently launched an investigation into Zhou Yongkang,… Continue Reading
“Europe is a landscape. East Asia is a seascape. Therein lies the crucial difference between the 20th and 21st century.” History is replete with seemingly isolated incidents ballooning into something much larger. As a stark reminder, the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I is only a few months away. Back then,… Continue Reading
It’s Not You, It’s Me With elections looming over the EU next month, recent news over the old continent has centered around the battle against deflation. “The European Central Bank has let it happen. Inflation has been running at an annual rate of minus 1.5% in the eurozone over the past five months,… Continue Reading
“Ain’t no party like a Communist party” The New York Times put together a panel of five people that know what they’re talking about and asked them the less than benign question “Was Marx right?”. Below is the roster of the participants and links to their respective answers: Doug Henwood, “A return to a world… Continue Reading
“Does this angle make me look fat?” Our friend, the New York Fed, released its March 2014 Economic Policy Review (a collection of 11 Research Papers) and the topic du jour is that of Too Big To Fail banks. One of the main criticisms of TBTF banks is the implicit subsidy these firms receive in… Continue Reading
Source: Worthwhile Canadian Initiative Blog Correlation does not mean causation. That has been sufficiently pounded in my head over the past decade. I have to say, though, this graph above from Worthwhile Canadian Initiative Blog looks mighty tasty in explaining the connection between Alberta Premieres leaving office with declines in natural resource revenue. To be… Continue Reading
“This looked like a lot more fun on BET” There is nothing like a good online beef. Throw in a couple of economists and you have some must-see TV (or Must-see Twitter Feeds). Based on a recent research note (and two accompanying videos) from the Bank of England titled “Money Creation in the Modern Economy”,… Continue Reading
Here we go Morgan Stanley released a note on China’s “Minsky Moment”. Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism blogger, makes a very interesting point about the timing and meaning of the report: “This is an even bigger deal than you might think. The Chinese government isn’t shy about putting banks that trash-talk its economy into the penalty… Continue Reading
“Lets get this party started” Yesterday, Janet Yellen – the world’s most powerful women the new Fed Chairwoman – lead her first Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and may have inadvertently indicated that interest rates would be raised earlier than previously expected: [Yellen] was asked how long the Fed would wait after the tapering… Continue Reading
“Wait, so we have to walk all the way back?” China Bears have been licking their chops over a recent slew of negative economic data and headlines coming out of the Middle Kingdom. Things are getting real. Really real. I wanted to highlight three noteworthy tidbits on the topic: 1. Where will a China slowdown… Continue Reading
“Mo Mao-ney, Mo Problems” In January, a wealth product – stemming from China’s highly unregulated $8 trillion Shadow Banking Sector – called “Credit Equals Gold #1” (you can’t make this up) was bailed out by the government. This action raised concern that the CCP leadership was not serious about systemic reform and would continue to… Continue Reading
Some are better at allocating the pie than others I am not personally a fan of most “How CEOs Succeed” books because: a) I’m not one and; b) most are pretentious self-serving ghost written cookie cutter full of tired clichés. However, to do CEO.CA justice, I thought it would be worthwhile to sing the praises of… Continue Reading
Source: Rabobank Interesting outlook on the global economy from Rabobank via Business Insider. Richard McGuire, Head of Strategy for Rabobank, charts the likelihood and impact of various global catalysts that could shake markets up. We see the usual suspects such as the Fed tapering too quickly, emerging market issues and Chinese growth slowing. However, McGuire… Continue Reading
“Blast you Excel!!” While Kenneth Rogoff took his lumps last year due to an enormously inexcusable excel error, this former Chief Economist for the IMF and co-author of This Time Its Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly is still a voice to be reckoned with. As part of Project Syndicate’s cleverly-titled-no-pun-intended “Submerging Markets” series, Rogoff… Continue Reading
“The days of getting rich quickly are over, and the days of getting rich slowly may be as well.” Bill Gross In his first “Investment Outlook” letter since the announced departure of his No. 2, Mohamed El-Erian, PIMCO’s co-founder Bill Gross remained confident on his company’s future and also shared his view on the US… Continue Reading
