Finance / the Economy

Jan 20, 2011 at 16:50 | Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Have I seen This movie before? Two years ago, analysts were predicting default rates as high as 17% for Junk bonds in the wake of the financial meltdown, taking yields…

Jan 20, 2011 at 06:38 | RFE/RL staff

"More longer-term, China would like to see the renminbi rival the U.S. dollar's status as a global reserve currency. But this is going to take a long time," Leather says.…

Dec 29, 2010 at 18:41 | Bruce Krasting

Oh boy is 2011 going to be an exciting year! Some things that I think might happen: -Volatility is going up across the board. If you have the stomach for…

Jan 17, 2012 at 11:40 | Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Any trader will tell you the trend is your friend, and the overwhelming direction for the US dollar for the last 220 years has been down.Our first Treasury…

Dec 24, 2010 at 09:30 | Dave Cohen

Capital will flow to where there's money to be made. It's just that simple. America's "accomodative" monetary policy has spurred a new wave of corporate borrowing. And where are these…

Dec 10, 2010 at 08:19 | Open Democracy

Ireland’s acceptance of international financial aid to its stricken finance sector is widely seen in the country as a shameful loss of sovereignty and the prelude to years of austerity.…

Nov 23, 2010 at 11:01 | Charles Hugh Smith

The top 20% are prospering and spending money; the bottom 80% are not, but thanks to vast wealth disparity, the top slice of households can keep consumer spending aloft. This…

Nov 22, 2010 at 12:45 | Dave Forest

This just might be chart of the year. Chinese buying of U.S. government agency bonds.

Nov 10, 2010 at 08:46 | Mad Hedge Fund Trader

I am not of the “V” or “W” persuasion, but see a “square root” shaped economic recovery, a “V” followed by a long, bumpy, but very modest rise. After a…

Nov 04, 2010 at 08:57 | Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Let’s put the economic policies the voters chose under the microscope and see what we got. It is not a pretty picture. The bottom line is that my scenario of…

Nov 03, 2010 at 12:00 | Dave Forest

We're a few hours away from the Federal Reserve's expected announcement of more quantitative easing for America. The general expectation is the Fed will buy hundreds of billions worth of…

Nov 02, 2010 at 13:14 | Kurt Cobb

In the 1948 Frank Capra film State of the Union aircraft tycoon Grant Matthews is drafted as a candidate for president of the United States. Matthews has never sought office…

Oct 29, 2010 at 12:24 | Mad Hedge Fund Trader

When I first visited Calcutta in 1976, 800,000 people were sleeping on the sidewalks, I was hauled everywhere by a very lean, barefoot rickshaw driver, and drinking the water out…

Oct 28, 2010 at 11:09 | Bruce Krasting

Jon Hilsenrath at the WSJ has been THE mouthpiece for Bernanke for the past few months. Bernanke has been telling him what is on his mind and Jon prints it.…

Oct 19, 2010 at 13:38 | Mad Hedge Fund Trader

When I wake up at 4:30 am each morning to check the overnight markets and review the opening salvo of incoming emails, I often have trouble focusing in my groggy…

Oct 19, 2010 at 09:24 | Darrell Delamaide

Out of the gate, Italian central bank governor Mario Draghi was the frontrunner. He had restored the integrity of the Bank of Italy that was tarnished by the scandals of…

Oct 09, 2010 at 10:08 | Dave Forest

Japan pulled out the firepower this week in terms of qualitative easing. Speculation is running the Fed will announce same at the beginning of November. And so people are worried.…

Oct 04, 2010 at 21:45 | Dave Forest

I wrote last week about big changes coming to financial regulation in Europe. Look for the sequel soon in the U.S. America is buckling down for a new era of…

Oct 01, 2010 at 08:40 | Dave Cohen

Last week, octogenerian Paul Volcker lost his grip. Volcker, who was the Fed chairman before Alan "Bubbles" Greenspan, remembers a time when the Wall Street (aka. the Financial Industry) worked…

Sep 29, 2010 at 06:46 | Dave Forest

Things seem pretty good in the markets these days. Gold once again touched $1,300/oz yesterday. And there's growing talk of $1,500. Base metals prices have remained firm. And equity…