Larry Summers
We always wondered over the choice of Larry Summers as one of President Obama key economic advisers. Certainly for a Washington neophyte however Summers offered Obama a way in as he understood the corridors and knew his way around having been Treasury Secretary for President Clinton. Now he's gone and many in the United States are not unhappy with this. Here is a piece from our favourite blogger Barry Ritholtz
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/summers-good-riddance/
Currencies
Paul Krugman looks at the Yen in this NYT Blog. The point is that you can see why the BOJ and the Government don't want the Yen to strengthen. We think the Yen is worth closer to 100 on fundamentals but in its favour, and perhaps why it is so strong, is the fact that Japan has muddled through without crashing for well over a decade. It is not clear either the US or Europe will be able to have such a benign malaise. So the Yen, counter-intuitively, rallies. Markets are hard work sometimes.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/about-the-yen/
This is what Krugman is talking about with his comment on the Chinese Exchange rate in the first stanza. Reuters via Business Spectator in Australia. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/UPDATE-1-US-House-panel-votes-Friday-on-China-curr-9JQNF?OpenDocument&src=hp11 China is not going to let its currency go just to please the Americans. They are opening slowly and we think doing it the right and patient way.
But the Americans do not. We understand that and have sympathy with their view from their perspective. But from a global and Chinese perspective we favour a modest appreciation in the Yuan rather than a free float. We fear however as the rhetoric is ramped up and tensions flare currency wars may erupt. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/769fdef4-c6a0-11df-8a9f-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss
Interest Rates and Economics
Rates in Australia are definetely heading higher, eventually. Whether or n ot it is in October is open to debate. but one of our Big Banks, CBA, now thinks rates in Australia are going to 6% next year. We don't care how well the Mining Boom is going this will cripple households and retail. Business owners in the consumer section need to be very careful with inventory. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/commonwealth-bank-forecasts-rba-to-lift-interest-rates-to-6pc-in-2011/story-e6frg926-1225928320700?from=public_rss
But elsewhere around the World Central Bankers are struggling with the opposite problem. This article goes to our blog on the unintended consequences of easy money (below http://spotlight-onmarketsandeconomics.blogspot.com/2010/09/unintended-consequences-of-easy-money.html ). We still have years of this to go unfortunately. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-22/central-banks-have-trouble-finding-exit-from-stimulus-as-recovery-weakens.html
Dinomaniacs
Our young bloke loves dinosaurs. Most young boys seem to so hers something for the parents. Two new dinosaurs like triceretops but one has 15 horns on its head. The link has a couple of pictures. Cool!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703860104575507942544136732.html?mod=e2tw
No comments:
Post a Comment