European orders increase more than expected… Was Cash for Clunkers necessary?… Roubini sees a ‘W’ not a ‘V’…
Lessons from Mary Poppins…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
The world’s power elite, the Bilderberg club, is getting together today at the five-star Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel in Greece. US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will be there. So will World Bank president (and Goldman Sachs alumnus) Robert Zoellick; head of Deutsche Bank Jo Ackermann; and European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet. The topic of discussion is the global economic meltdown.
Krugman: U.S. in Danger of Lost Decade; Trichet Sees First Signs of Recovery; Plavix Could Have Serious Competitor; Intel Could Face Record Antitrust Fine; GM Open to Leaving Detroit; Microsoft in First Bond Offering; Dish Network Beats Expectations; Nortel Blows a Fuse
The dollar and the yen gained ground on Monday as grim Japanese data intensified global recession fears and encouraged buying of safer assets, while concerns about trouble in eastern Europe pressured the euro.
Dollar and yen slip as stocks gain, risk aversion eases… Government aid for banks offset Citi, BoA results… U.S. net capital inflows fall sharply in November.
A Santa Rally for the currencies?… Waiting for the FOMC… AUD and NZD rally… China to try and keep growth above 8%… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
While the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to cut its benchmark Federal Funds target rate to a record-low 0.5% at its policymaking Federal Open Market Committee meeting tomorrow (Tuesday), the European Central Bank (ECB) is signaling a reluctance to drop its key rate below 2.0%.
A spree of economic props dominoed across Europe today (Thursday) all sharing the same theme – stopping the global financial crisis from getting worse. The European Central Bank took a drastic step to protect the Eurozone economy from shrinking further by lowering its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 2.5%.
Are we seeing a change in fortunes for the much maligned greenback? It would certainly seem so. The US currency has climbed to a one week high against the euro and the yen. And the G8 leaders are expected to signal support for the dollar at their meeting today.
How did this happen? The dollar was heading for a drubbing against the euro last week. Currency expert Chuck Butler believes that Fed chief Ben Bernanke sent ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet a memo pleading with him to help the dollar out by not signaling further rate hikes in Europe.
Last year, China was viewed as the driver behind rising commodities prices.
Now the blame for spiraling food and oil prices is increasingly being laid at the door of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for cutting the fed funds rate to 2% and unleashing yet another wave of inflationary surplus liquidity.
The fallout is now being seen as India, China, the Philippines and Indonesia hike their own interest rates to rein in rising prices.
Consumer prices jumped 7.7% last month, down from 8.5% in April, but inflation there remains top of the list of economic concerns.