financial markets

massive profits on gbp/usd today

good day to sell off the pound -over 240 pips (as at the time of writting). as you may well know not all days are like this though. the more days like this the closer that retirement day draws...

stock market

I am currently being influenced by a friend to try the stock market using the available online tools. How safe it is? Anyone currently into this?

Distressing Table of the Day

Here's the basis for the $945 billion estimate of losses to the financial sector. From the IMF's Global Financial Stability Report:Table 1.1 from IMF's Global Financial Stability Report.Here's...

Kicking the Can down the Road

Inspection of the Administration's approaches to previous policy issues provides some instructive precedents [0], [1], [2], [3], [4] to consider in light of current policy challenges in the financial...

President Bush Discusses Economy

9:40 A.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for coming by today to talk about the economic situation -- we'll be meeting later on this afternoon with the President's Task Force...

Crony Capitalism Comes (Returns?) to America

Or, who will be the Keating 5 of the 2000's? Perspectives from those of us who remember the East Asian crises of the 1990's.From the NYT:News Analysis A 'Moral Hazard' for a Housing Bailout: Sorting...

A Thought on the Sub-prime Debacle

Most of the NYT's recent coverage of the subprime mess focused on Greenspan and the Federal Reserve System.However, it's clear that regulation was deficient along other fronts. From the NYT: ... The...

The Euro as the World's Reserve Currency: A Progress Report

Back in 2005, Jeff Frankel and I presented a series of projections about the dollar's role as the world's dominant reserve currency. We concluded:...Whether the euro might in the future rival or...

Foreign Exchange Market Transactions and Reserves: Recent Statistics

There's been a cornucopia of forex market information released in the past week, which I'm only now getting to. First, the BIS has released the preliminary results from its Triennial Central...

One perspective on approaching the current situation

Since Jim laid out some of the proposals for addressing the mortgage problem, I thought I'd put in my two cents worth.Now, let me say that I don't have an answer. But it seems to me one of the most...

Worse than 1998?

From IDEAGlobal, FX Alert, August 21:MONEY MARKET DISLOCATION WORSE THAN IN 1998The spread between the 3 months cash rate and the policy rate in the US, Eurozone and UK has jumped during this...

Where's the risk?

Usually an economic downturn is associated in a big increase in the spread between corporate and Treasury yields. This spiked pretty dramatically last week, but still has a long way to go. ...