REVERSE QE2, SAYS FED’S RICHARD FISHER February 17, 2011 AS THE American economy improves, the Federal Reserve should consider reversing its controversial asset purchasing scheme (QE2), senior Fed official Richard Fisher said yesterday. When the time comes to tighten policy, “one could make an argument that the most logical thing to do is to undo what you did last,” he told Bloomberg News. Yesterday [...]
Fed boost for US recovery February 16, 2011 POSITIVE data from the US has caused the Federal Reserve to raise its forecasts for economic growth, it was revealed last night. “Participants generally expressed greater confidence that the economic recovery would be sustained,” the Fed revealed in minutes of its last rate setting meeting in January. The GDP growth forecast was increased to a [...]
US input costs rising but housebuilding up February 16, 2011 US core producer prices rose to their highest rate in more than two years in January, hinting at a potentially troubling build-up in inflationary pressures. A separate dataset from the Commerce Department showed new housing starts jumped 14.6 per cent in January from December to their highest level since September, beating economists’ forecasts but still [...]
US lawmakers oppose bank dividend plans February 15, 2011 Seven US Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern that big banks, some of which are still benefiting from government financial support, plan to boost their dividends and reduce capital. “It seems hard to justify reducing the capital of banks without considering the continued government support that banks with outstanding guarantees enjoy,” the House of Representatives members [...]
The Malthusian bull market carries on February 10, 2011 IN 1980, two academics, Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich, agreed a now famous wager. Ehrlich chose five commodity metals and bet that over the next 10 years, they would get more expensive. Ultimately, Simon won, and all five metals – copper, chromium, nickel, tin and tungsten – got progressively less expensive all the way up [...]
What the other papers say this morning February 9, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES TPG LOSES ANOTHER SENIOR ASIA EXECUTIVE Mary Ma, a Chinese executive at TPG Capital, is leaving to start a fund, joining other mainland executives from western buy-out firms who will start out on their own. Ma, former chief financial officer of Lenovo, joined TPG’s Asia team as managing director and a partner in [...]
Bernanke says US job growth too low February 9, 2011 US unemployment remains too high for comfort despite the economy showing signs of strengthening recovery, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has said. In testimony to the US House of Representatives’ Budget Committee that largely echoed a speech he delivered last week, Bernanke also warned about the dangers of unsustainable budget deficits. But his commitment to [...]
Quantitative easing must stop, say top Fed officials February 8, 2011 AMERICA’S monetary stimulus should be withdrawn at the “earliest sign” of core inflation pressures taking hold, Richard Fisher of the Federal Reserve said last night. And no extension of quantitative easing (QE2) is warranted, he said. It was “hard to envision a scenario where I would not formally dissent against another tranche of monetary accommodation,” [...]
LCH Clearnet to clear real-time freight platform February 7, 2011 CLEARING platform LCH Clearnet is to clear all trades on freight and commodity derivatives on trading venue ClearTrade Exchange. Singapore-based Cleartrade is the first regulated venue for over-the-counter cleared shipping and soft commodities derivatives. For the first time, screen trades will be fed automatically in real time from processing to clearing. The process will reduce [...]
Rising commodity prices have further to go February 6, 2011 FOR two weeks our headlines and television sets have been dominated by Egypt. Prior to the scenes in Tahrir Square, all eyes were on Tunisia; contagion is spreading across the Middle East. So what role did rising food costs play in pushing the region to the brink? And how can citizens be expected to understand [...]