Never in modern history has the world’s leading economic power tried to do so much with so little. A saving-short US economy has long pushed the envelope in drawing on foreign capital to subsidise excess …
Katrina May Be A Tipping Point for the US
Category: Economy
US Consumers Are Running on Empty
The role of American consumers in promoting economic growth in the U.S. and, indeed, in many export-driven foreign countries will be especially significant in coming quarters. The effects of the previous huge federal tax cuts …
Upbeat US Analysts Ignore Katrina’s Reality
Objective discussion of North American financial and economic matters is often made insuperably difficult by the inherent optimism of so many resident commentators and players. Possession of an invariably sunny disposition is in most respects …
High Oil Price Will Squeeze Global Growth
In response to a major reworking of our energy price assumptions, we are making our first meaningful cuts to the global growth prognosis in quite some time. This downward revision is not an event-driven response …
Italy’s Troubled European Marriage
Many fund managers have begun to look at stocks and sectors on a pan-European basis as euro-common factors have supplanted country-specific influences on performance. But not all of these euro-common factors have been positive. In …
Is Investing in Russia A Good Move?
Though weakened by crisis in 1998, Russia has staged a remarkable turnaround. Its economy now ranks amongst the world’s most dynamic. Skyrocketing oil prices are certainly part of the reason. In fact, Russia is the …
Counting Katrina’s Costs
The human tragedy wrought by Hurricane Katrina, so visible in the anguished faces of her victims and shocking portraits of devastation dominating the national news media, is incalculable. The historic city of New Orleans, the …
Julius Baer Shakes Up Swiss Banking
Swiss private bank Julius Baer has decided that being “big enough to matter, but small enough to care” looks “a pretty expensive way” to do business, says Jonathan Ford on Breakingviews.com. Smaller Swiss banks have …
Is Japan’s Latest Rally for Real?
It was 17 January 1990 when I experienced the worst snow storm of my life. Stuck in Newark Airport, New Jersey, I spent a night curled up on an extremely uncomfortable airport bench. My friends …
Some days are better than others
The trouble with mediocrity is that it’s boring. And economic commentators, looking for reasons to explain market behaviour, generally like to make things sound a bit more exciting than they really are. This can mean …