Ideas and analysis on money, markets and the world around us.
Sterling is once again front and centre of market attention today – and again, not in a good way: tumbling by nearly 1% against the dollar following news of an unexpected contraction in UK manufacturing last month. The…
Read the articleJames Turk discusses the macro environment with a focus on Europe with Beurs Magazine. Since last summer the euro has been on the rise. Is that a trend you see continuing going forward? JT: It’s hard to predict the…
Read the articleMarkets have been roiled over the last 48 hours by the three B’s: Berlusconi, Bernanke and Boehner. The indecisive Italian election outcome and the strength of the anti-austerity vote has many traders thinking that the…
Read the articleDespite recent headlines and a great deal of squawking over hints that the latest FOMC minutes heralded a slight (maybe) signal of more hawkish intentions from the Federal Reserve, January saw US M3 rising to almost…
Read the articleMoody’s announcement late on Friday that it was downgrading the United Kingdom’s credit rating from AAA to Aa1 has had predictable consequences for sterling: the currency sinking to $1.5073, its lowest level since the…
Read the articleOn 20 March George Osborne, the UK’s Chancellor, will present his budget. So far he has made a valiant attempt to cap public sector spending, particularly when compared with other finance ministers who were slow to…
Read the articleGold took a beating on Wednesday, amid media chatter about the mythical notion of tighter monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. Evidence for this appears no more convincing than at anytime since the start of the…
Read the articleGold and silver have stabilised over the last 24 hours, with traders waiting on the release of the latest batch of Federal Reserve minutes – for their 29-30 January Open Market Committee – later today for more…
Read the articleGovernments have refused to accept the necessity of a period of economic re-adjustment following the credit-bubble. The bubble burst about five years ago and economic progress has been effectively suspended ever since.…
Read the articleLast Friday night (European time, 8 February) the Bank Participation Report for 5 February was released. This showed that US banks reduced their net short gold position by 12,886 contracts over the month of January,…
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