Politics
Port of Gaul: A Political Fallout in An Economic Crisis
I have no real idea of how Gaul plays into a country’s current economic crisis, but it makes for a pretty nice use of alliteration. The nation of Gaul took their first steps toward conquer by Julius Caesar and his army in approximately 58 BC; and in Portugal on Wednesday the 24th, the Prime Minister [...]
OTC and CFTC
It is being reported today that the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will ask Congress to nearly double the size of the agency’s operating budget from $169 million to $308 million. Apart from the increase in volume of futures trades and the increased number of types of contracts, the agency argues that its [...]
Planning To Plan
As mentioned in an earlier post, there had been a meeting of finance ministers from the 17 member Euro-Zone over the weekend. The talks produced what one would expect at a gathering of this type, that is an agreement on principal and a re-scheduling of discussions until the following week. This after news of the [...]
Wisconsin Unions Next Steps
To follow-up on a previous article on the importance of service sector unions, I would like to discuss the next steps that are available to those affected by the state legislator’s passing of the union gutting budget repair bill in Wisconsin. Recall that this is the bill that strips the service sector unions from collective [...]
Trade Gap Limits Economic Recovery
It was reported today that the U.S. trade deficit, (the amount of products imported versus the amount of products exported), widened sharply in January to its highest level in seven months. The North African unrest and surging oil prices has helped to overwhelm a gain in exports by the US. The cost of meeting the [...]
Stalemate In Libya Will Result in Sustained Volatility
As we shift into a different gear in the global handling of the uprisings in Libya, a new normal is beginning to emerge in commodities markets around the world. With the current regime’s insistence in remaining in power and a possible sustained bloody civil war in the making, consumers should be braced for paying a [...]
US Treasury Statement on Libya
The US Treasury said U.S. financial institutions needed “to take reasonable risk-based steps with respect to the potential increased movement of assets that may be related to the situation in Libya.” The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fincen) said financial institutions should increase their KYC Programs (KYC = Know Your Client) for private banking accounts held [...]
Sovereign Wealth Funds: Civil Unrest & Financial Insight in a SWF?
With the recent public outrage demonstrating itself in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, to name the most recent and high profile participants in the ‘social media revolutions’, there may be an interesting financial implication that could be considered as polar opposite of what a generally happens when a geo-political crisis arises. What I am suggesting is [...]
Service Sector Unions
When one voice rules the nation, just because they’re on top of the pile. Doesn’t mean that their vision is the clearest. – Ideology, Billy Bragg The protests and demonstrations that are and have been taking place in Madison, Wisconsin represent the first real mobilization of the service sector unions in some time. While I [...]
Financial Times – US homepage- Chinese activist ends odyssey in USDeparture of Chen and his family brings to an end the worst diplomatic spat between Beijing and Washington in over a decade […]
- G8 splits over stimulus versus austerityMerkel resists efforts by other G8 leaders to push eurozone to do more to stimulate growth […]
- Murdoch quashes talk of UK paper spin-offNews Corp’s chief has moved to quash talk about selling its tainted UK newspaper business, saying publishing would remain ‘a core component’ […]
- Alibaba nears buyback deal with YahooThe deal under discussion would involve the US group selling about $7bn of its stake in the Chinese ecommerce group, valuing Alibaba at $35bn […]
- Faltering start for the new FacebookGlitches delayed the opening of trading and underwriters had to intervene to prevent the group’s shares falling below the $38 price set on Thursday […]
- Moderate leads field among Egypt’s expatriatesOf 38,000 ballots cast by Egyptian expatriates in a dozen diplomatic outposts, Dr Aboul Fotouh received nearly 30 per cent of the votes […]
- Resource stocks mirror global economyDecline of groups involved in supplying essential raw materials for business show how investors really feel about the global economy’s direction […]
- China linked to ‘economic espionage’The Pentagon report says the country will continue to be an ‘aggressive and capable’ collector of sensitive US technological information […]
- Obama ground forces braced for air warPresident’s team says massive grassroots campaign will be needed to withstand bombardment of negative attack ads from Romney and super-Pacs […]
- Spain hit by rise in bad bank loansValue of bad loans held by banking sector increased a third during the past year to €148bn and accounted for 8.4% of their entire loan portfolios […]
- Chinese activist ends odyssey in US
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