BROKEN EURO TROUBLE FOR CHINA AND US May 25, 2010 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT WITH the yuan up nearly 15 per cent against the euro this year, there was some speculation in the market last week that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was a major buyer of the currency as Chinese monetary officials tried to slow the chaotic sell-off. A drop [...]
FORTY YEARS ON AND WE SEEM TO HAVE LEARNED VERY FEW LESSONS May 24, 2010 WHEN you are older than God, as I am, I think you tend to become rather blasé as yet another political or financial crisis unfolds. I was 23 and working as an impecunious bank clerk at Hill Samuel (now part of Lloyds Banking Group, for the youth among you) when I was exposed to my [...]
Fed upbeat about US economy May 20, 2010 ECONOMIC forecasts by the US Federal Reserve remained positive despite a continued move to hold interest rates around zero. During an April meeting of the bank’s Open Market Committee, chaired by Ben Bernanke, the bank said that the labour market was showing signs of improvement, while housing market spending was also picking up. The Fed [...]
US consumer prices fall bolstering low rates view May 20, 2010 US consumer prices unexpectedly fell in April, the first decline in a year, and the core annual rate recorded its smallest gain since 1966, suggesting scope for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates near zero for some time. The Labour Department yesterday said its seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index slipped 0.1 per cent, pulled [...]
VEXED IN THE CITY May 19, 2010 I’m fed up with my office pal taking out his temper on me DEAR VEXED: There’s a guy at work in the same division as me. We’re on the same level as each other and joined the company at the same time. We get on brilliantly most of the time; laughing and joking, he even [...]
Data suggests US recovery is slowing down May 17, 2010 THE pace of the US economic rebound may be slowing, manufacturing data and retailers results hinted yesterday, at the same time as concerns grow about the impact of Europe’s debt crisis on global growth. A gauge of manufacturing in New York State showed the sector continued to grow in May but at a slower pace, [...]
Anyone with dicey cooking skills, please apply within May 16, 2010 AM I a desperate housewife? I’d like to think only occasionally (technically I’m no one’s wife although I do have a partner and a child), however when it comes to rustling up something interesting for us to eat this side of midnight after rushing home from work, it’s fair to say that sometimes it can [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 13, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES TENSIONS LIE AHEAD FOR TREASURY Early this year, a top Treasury official sipped coffee in the departmental canteen and mused about the process of deficit reduction. It would be a long grind, he said, requiring hard work and persistence. Most important, he predicted, would be the task of “keeping a coalition in favour [...]
Senate backs probe of Federal Reserve May 11, 2010 THE US Senate yeterday unanimously approved an amendment to a financial reform bill that aims to open the secretive Federal Reserve to outside scrutiny. The measure introduced by senator Bernie Sanders, an independent on the left, was passed by a vote of 96 to 0. It directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an investigative arm [...]
EURO BAILOUT MAY NOT GO FAR ENOUGH May 11, 2010 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT LAST weekend’s unprecedented move by the EU and IMF to create a rescue package worth nearly $1 trillion to guarantee sovereign debt within the Eurozone was a gargantuan policy effort to stabilise the euro. The deal created an array of measures, including $560bn in new loans, $76bn under an existing [...]