Tim Price of ‘The Price of Everything’ blog fame has written a good column in FT. Sample these two paragraphs:
And an analysis of the Altman Z Score, which assesses the likelihood of corporate insolvency by comparing various balance sheet measures, shows that the frankly flakiest companies have seen their shares hugely outperform the rest of [...]
President Obama has ended the suspense on the re-appointment of Bernanke. Subject to Congressional hearings and approval, Bernanke looks set for a second term as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. The President cited his temperament as one of his strengths. Perhaps, there is something to that. But, as for his judgement, reading Stephen Roach’s [...]
To fully understand, interpret and even judge Mr. Bernanke’s tone of ‘quiet satisfaction’ with obligatory reference to ‘pending challenges’, you should read this very well-written and crisp piece by Prof. Barry Eichengreen. Nice parting shot:
Too bad that there was not a better way of learning sympathy for Japan than by emulating its example. [More here].
Talking [...]
T.N. Ninan reminded us of the dangers of Indian capitalism being derailed by Indian capitalists in his weekend column yesterday. The immediate trigger is the collapse of the portion of roof in the new Delhi Domestic Airport Terminal, close on the heels of the problem in the Delhi Metro project. The implications of what Mr. Ninan [...]
Ever since I heard that Indian PM had said that restoring 9% growth was going to be the greatest challenge in his Independence Day speech, I wanted to go back and read his full speech. I did that. This is where he said that:
As you know, our economy grew at a rate of about 9% [...]
The transcript of the IMF conference call on the conclusion of the Article IV consultation with China is a gem, more for what it does not say explicitly than for what it does. Readers should note that the IMF did not conduct Article IV (under the Articles of Agreement each country signs with IMF on becoming [...]
On August 6th, the Bank of England raised the amount of debt securities it intended to purchase, from GBP125 billion to GBP175 billions. On August 12tth, the Federal Reserve quietly extended the end-date for its quantitative easing programme to October from September. On August 17th, it extended the deadline for its Term Asset Backed Loan [...]
If you were looking for a good reason to turn negative on the crude oil price outlook, you might have found one here:
IEA Raises 2009, 2010 Oil Demand Forecasts on Chinese Growth
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) — The International Energy Agency raised its global oil demand forecasts for this year and next, citing accelerating industrial activity in China, the [...]
Massive liquidity due to easy credit has encouraged industry-wide speculative buying of steel products as evidenced by non-steel industry players hoarding steel products in anticipation of higher prices in 4Q09, while large amount of steel products are traded among steel traders, not consumed by end-users.
Source: Global Commodities Daily dated 10th August 2009, of a leading global [...]
It has been a fascinating exercise watching /reading analysts/economists treating the Indian monsoon showers (or the lack of them) coyly, never once bothering to identify it as a potentially serious risk to the rural demand story. You can see remnants of that attitude here but not here and not here either.
Good friend Sanjeev Sanyal has [...]
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