I have been carping on about how pensions would be cut and the age raised for so long I had begun to bore myself. But today we get the first glimpse of the truth, in the UK at least. Pensions to be raised to 66 a decade earlier. Don’t believe it. This is just to …
Being a debtor in a crowd of debtors is one thing. Being a debtor in a crowd of people who are cutting back their spending is much more exposed and uncomfortable. That is where the US finds itself. At the G20 the US will talk of the need for unity. By which they will actually …
Portugal’s debt costs jumped again. Up nearly one percent in a single month. Up from 3.7% to 4.6% for 5 year debt. This continues the pattern seen for Spain and Italy. Both of them had debt costs jump recently. There is no denying it, European debts are sliding down the same slope Greece already fell …
In the previous post I wrote about the American season of pain and isolation. I thought I should even the score and make it clear I do not think the Europeans and GB are cruising to any sort of victory. The US is caught in a trap of its own making, tied, for the moment …
I think the US is about to start on a long season of unnaccustomed criticsm, bad pr, isolation, and pain. What began a month or so ago as a split with Germany over what should be the financial response to the on-going bank crisis is now developing into something more serious and damaging. Back on …
This post grew out of a reply to a question put to me by Jim in the comments section of the post befire thi one. The reply got too long and I thought might be of broader interest.See his comment for the reference to the article. But you don’t need to have read it to …
The problem with the Stress Test is no one believes it is based upon a truthful set of bank data nor on a likely set of ‘stressful’ conditions. Other than those two minor points its all pure gold. Bank tests are the modern equivalent to old fashioned militarty manoeuvers. You know the kind practiced by …
China has loosened its peg to the dollar. So reads triumphant headlines in the West. As if this were some sort of Chniese climb-down. It is not. I said in a post a little while ago, the Chinese would not allow their currency to appreciate. So surely I should admit I was wrong and keep …
Every now and again, in every society, the relations of who has what power and over whom, alter. At first all the same players are still in the game and it may look, for a while at least, even to those involved. that nothing has changed. Only that the outcomes of actions seem erratic and …
One of the largest components of the global financial order was the US consumes/ China produces, relationship. A relationship whose return loop was China buys US debt. Smaller parts of this machinery were the off-shoring of US jobs to China and the sucking in of every sort of raw commodity (metals and coal) to fuel …
China to U.S. – I still care for you. But as a friend Read More »
