Shinzo Abe’s big trade puzzle January 27, 2014 Despite massive easing by the Bank of Japan over the last year, figures released overnight show that the country’s trade deficit is still growing at around the same pace it did before the enormous expansion of the monetary base. The country’s merchandise trade deficit was some ¥1,302.1bn (£7.6bn) in December, twice as wide as it [...]
Turkey’s central bank to hold emergency meeting as lira crumbles January 27, 2014 After hitting fresh lows this morning, news that the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey is to hold a flash meeting on 28 January is giving the embattled currency some hope. USDTRY completely turns around as Turkish Central Bank announces extraordinary meeting to be held tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/mYRhwDunvW — Jonathan Ferro (@FerroTV) January 27, 2014 [...]
German business sentiment at highest levels in two-and-a-half years January 27, 2014 A clean bill of health for the German economy this morning. The Ifo survey has beaten or matched analyst expectations across the board. The headline business climate index is up to its highest level since July 2011 at 110.6, up from 109.5 prior. But Johnathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, says that the [...]
No Facebook, you haven’t just debunked Princeton January 24, 2014 A recent Princeton study estimated that 80 per cent of Facebook's users will leave the site by 2017, and as the research went viral, the social network just had to respond. It's a shame, because while Facebook data scientist Mike Develin makes good points about the follies of extrapolation generally, he manages to miss the [...]
After you watch this, you’ll see big government everywhere January 24, 2014 Adam Smith wrote that "people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public" – and that's exactly what me mean when we talk about corporatism. When big business and government get in bed they can make rules to favour big companies, [...]
“Recovery has some way to run” before rate hike, says Carney January 24, 2014 The UK is still some way off moving away from "the emergency setting of monetary policy". Speaking at Davos, Bank of England governor Mark Carney has said that "even thought unemployment is falling faster than expected, the recovery has some way to run". After Wednesday's news that three month unemployment has fallen to 7.1 per [...]
Argentina to lift controls and allow dollar purchases after peso crash January 24, 2014 A crackdown on illegal currency exchanges saw the peso collapse by around 12.5 per cent yesterday, to around $0.125. Now the Argentinian government is to lift currency controls, and allow dollar purchases from 27 January after the currency hit an "acceptable" level. Yesterday Johns Hopkins professor Steve Hanke, former adviser to Argentine economy minister Domingo [...]
Where to drink January 24, 2014 Bars and clubs continue to open as London recovers from the post-Christmas blues. Chakana is a new Incan-themed nightclub next to Selfridges, spearheaded by Nick House (Steam and Rye, Mahiki), who recruited international clubland superstars Andrew Dax (London, Ibiza), Corrado Mozzillo (Italy) and Augusto Rosillo (Argentina) to create a nightlife experience akin to Tarantino’s From [...]
Supportive monetary policy has worked, says Osborne January 24, 2014 George Osborne thinks supportive monetary policy has done its job and data has shown that it works. Speaking on The Future of Monetary Policy panel at Davos, the chancellor said that the success of monetary policy "confounds" its opponents who said that other things were needed. Osborne described the UK's recovery as income generated, not [...]
This Swiss-Japanese tie-up looks a match made in heaven January 23, 2014 It’s fair to say that Japan doesn’t have the greatest demographic profile, with an ageing population putting pressure on the country to undertake cheap money schemes to get the economy moving. While not so good for inflation, the country’s rising tide of pensioners might just be good news for alternative fund managers, who can sell [...]
