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Currency Thoughts Hits 1000 Postings
May 7, 2009
My review of the Bank of England statement below was the 1000th post of this blog. If you haven’t already done so, please take a couple of minutes to fill out the brief customer satisfaction survey to make the next thousand posts even more useful. Thank you for your support. More
It's Time to Hear from You!
May 4, 2009
Currency Thoughts has been on the web for just over a year. It’s time for a “reader survey.” Please take a minute or two to let us know your thoughts in the linked ten-question survey so we can provide the coverage that means the most to you. Many thanks in advance for your response. -Larry [...] More
A Surprisingly Busy Thursday for International Financial Markets
April 8, 2009
In light of the Passover and Easter holiday breaks, one would expect a dearth of data and other news for markets to absorb. It will not be so. Besides the aforementioned Bank of England policy announcement, the Bank of Korea also makes a rate announcement, and Indonesia holds parliamentary elections tomorrow. Industrial production data will [...] More
Blame Game Undermines Economic Confidence Too
March 10, 2009
Dreams of a bipartisan effort to fix the U.S. and global financial and economic problems are slip-sliding away. Little common ground can be found over the causes of the mess or what should be done to fix it. The Wall Street Journal, a former critic of Fed policy, has shifted its main wrath to the [...] More
Big Stock Market Rallies in a Bear Market
March 10, 2009
At mid-day in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shows a gain of 5% since the open. We are possibly on our way to the tenth daily increase of at least 4% since a record closing high of 14165 in October 2007. Daily moves of as much as 4% are usually very uncommon. There [...] More
No Posts Friday
February 20, 2009
I’ll be attending the Annual Conference of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University. This year’s conference topic, Emerging from the Financial Crisis, promises to be stimulating and enlightening. Back on Monday. More
Some Really Ugly Data
February 18, 2009
Among the myriad of bad economic figures, a few from the recent past really stick out. The weakness of industrial production in Eastern Europe was exemplified by month-on-month drops of 19% in Romania and 20% in Russia. The volume of Canadian wholesale sales plunged 24.5% at an annualized rate over the three months between September [...] More
Rate Cuts Today in Hungary, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia
January 19, 2009
Magyar Nemzeti Bank became today’s third central bank to reduce its benchmark rate by 50 basis points. Hungary joins several other countries with falling interest rates despite vulnerable currencies. The UAE central bank cut its repo rate by a third to 1.0% from 1.5% and issued a statement citing struggling banks and the need to [...] More
Many Data Releases Tomorrow
January 8, 2009
Markets are understandably focused upon the U.S. December labor statistics, which are expected to produce a 7-handle on the jobless rate for the first time since June 1993 and the largest decline in jobs since December 1974. There’s a considerable amount of other indicators being reported as well and not just from the United States. [...] More
Information on Federal Reserve Reciprocal Swap Arrangements
December 3, 2008
A number of people have asked for information on the usage and size of Federal Reserve currency swap arrangements. Such can be found in the quarterly reports published by the Fed entitled Treasury and Federal Reserve Foreign Exchange Operations, the latest of which can be viewed by clicking here. A background piece on this subject [...] More
