July Hiring Slowdown Masks Labor Market Strength Logistics Payrolls Surging Ahead of Fall Shipping Season U.S. Trade Gap Widened in June China Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs on $60 Billion of U.S. Products China Fights Back After Yuan Slide Adding Up the Cost of Climate Change in Lost Lives Auto…

Everett Collection The Federal Reserve’s exit strategy is so unrealistic it seems to have been designed by Peter Pan from Neverland, said Vincent Reinhart, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley and former top U.S. central bank staffer. “Peter Pan’s advice was to think of an impossible thing each…

"More Than Half Of All Global Government Bonds Are Yielding 1% Or Less" by Sat, 04/18/2015 - 20:01 0 SHARES Earlier today, we were quite shocked when we heard two statements by central bankers uttered during a press briefing in Washington. The first comes from the ECB's Mario Draghi: DRAGHI: LOW…

by Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:29 0 SHARES Whether it is due to pervasive groupthink, a chronic lack of vision, the perpetuation of failed ideas, or just because the alternative casts grave doubts about the value of their very existence, conventional economists and their media lackeys have almost without…

Multibillion Hedge Fund Manager: "Ultimately QE Will Fail; US And China Might Enter Recession At The Same Time" by Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:20 0 SHARES By Russell Clark, investment manager of Horseman Capital Management , March 2015 monthly newsletter I have somewhat depressingly spent most of my time…

The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, called a special session of parliament to brief lawmakers on the course of recent troubled negotiations with bailout lenders to overhaul cost-cutting reforms.Photograph: Dimitri Messinis/Sipa/Rex The viability of the EU – and its most cherished creation, the…

Greece is drawing up drastic plans to nationalise the country's banking system and introduce a parallel currency to pay bills unless the eurozone takes steps to defuse the simmering crisis and soften its demands. Sources close to the ruling Syriza party said the government is determined to keep…

Since the beginning of the economic crisis, a considerable part of the Greek left has argued that the only realistic alternative for the country is to default on its debts, exit the eurozone , and start printing its own currency. Freed from Europe’s monetarist prison, the argument runs, Greece would…

Our spring issue , looking at the democratic revolts of 1968, is out now! Subscribe or renew today. Consider three people. First, Costas Lapvistas, the recently elected Syriza member of parliament for Imathia and a lecturer in economics at SOAS, University of London. Four years ago, he was at the…

SB As somebody who has your background, what has the transition been like for you, to be thrust right into a position both of elected office as an MP and in the middle of a political storm? It must be quite a big contrast with the days of SOAS departmental meetings. CL [Laughs.] They don’t come much…

patient adj. “bearing or enduring pain, trouble, etc. without complaining or losing self-control; refusing to be provoked or angered, as by an insult; forbearing; tolerant; calmly tolerating delay, confusion, inefficiency, etc.” — Webster’s New World College Dictionary When the Federal Reserve…

In my soon-to-be-published book on the Eurozone I examined the case of Denmark in some detail in the context of the evolution of the European Monetary System, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), and the ratification process of the Treaty of Maastricht. Denmark was a participant in all the…

This Account Has Been Suspended

Greece's money troubles resemble a game of pass the parcel, where each successive participant rips another sheet of wrapping paper off the box -- which turns out to be empty when the final recipient reaches the core. With time and money running out, a successful endgame seems even less likely than…

By Robert Stevens 7 March 2015 After the Syriza-led government’s decision to sign the February 20 Eurogroup statement and capitulate to European Union (EU) demands for more austerity in Greece, EU officials are stepping up their threats against the country. Since then, the “troika”—the European…

After Greece reached an agreement with the other Eurogroup members on February 20, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble remarked in his inimitable style: “The Greeks certainly will have a difficult time explaining the deal to their voters.” In fact, the electorate seems to have understood the…

‘The Syriza government has paid a high price to remain alive. Things will be made even harder by the parlous state of the Greek economy.’ Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters T he agreement signed between Greece and the EU after three weeks of lively negotiations is a compromise reached under…

Getty Images Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference in December. WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Here are the prepared remarks of Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen before the Senate Banking Committee: “Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Brown, and members of the…

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — There’s only one thing holding back the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates, and it’s not weak wage growth, nervousness about Greece or China, the slump in U.S. growth in the first quarter of the year, or even the lack of inflationary pressure. It’s the risk of…

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street lagged a rise in global markets on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closing slightly lower even as energy shares gained along with a surge in oil prices. Upbeat U.S. housing data and Chinese factory data were not enough to drive up sentiment and a second…

“Don’t mention the war”! was a classic line from the episode – The Germans – in the comedy Fawlty Towers. Basil Fawlty implored his meagre staff to stay silent in case they offended some German tourists staying at his hotel. His attempt at self-censorship failed and led to hilarious consequences. I…

In the short course of the latest Greek financial crisis, Syriza appears to have transformed itself from what in the UK would be seen as traditional leftists into Blairites. In the reforms proposed by the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to secure a four-month extension of its life-or-death…

E-mail James Galbraith On Friday as news of the Brussels deal came through, Germany claimed victory and it is no surprise that most of the working press bought the claim. They have high authorities to quote and to rely on. Thus from London The Independent reported: several analysts agreed that the…

Let us begin with what should be indisputable: the Eurogroup agreement that the Greek government was dragged into on Friday amounts to a headlong retreat . The memorandum regime is to be extended, the loan agreement and the totality of debt recognized, “supervision,” another word for troika rule, is…

by Wed, 02/18/2015 - 22:35 0 SHARES With the world's oldest central bank - Sweden's Riksbank - taking the plunge into negative rates, there have been 19 'eases' by central banks this year , Morgan Stanley warns of "ghosts of the 1930s." With competitive 'easing' stoking fears of international…

TOKYO – Financial markets have greeted the election of Greece’s new far-left government in predictable fashion. But, though the Syriza party’s victory sent Greek equities and bonds plummeting, there is little sign of contagion to other distressed countries on the eurozone periphery. Spanish ten-year…

Mr Varoufakis, does this hectic shuttle diplomacy leave you any time to reflect on your work? I wish I had more time. We're an inexperienced government, and we haven't been given the time to familiarize ourselves with the work of our ministries. Strictly speaking, we need a few weeks to deliberate…

Yanis Varoufakis …’We’ve lost everything, so we can speak truth to power, and it’s about time we do.’ Photograph: Panagiotis Moschandreou Y anis Varoufakis, it is fair to say, was barely known not that long ago. True, he was a bit of a celebrity in the arcane world of austerity economics. His vivid…

The huge fall in energy and other commodity prices towards the end of 2014 has driven the overall rate of inflation of prices of all commodities down. Combined with faster growth in GDP and employment in the US, this suggests a more optimistic scenario for capitalism in 2015. Lower gasoline prices…

‘New Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has played his hand badly against the troika’Photograph: Petros Giannakouris/AP The future of Europe now depends on something apparently impossible: Greece and Germany must strike a deal. What makes such a deal seem impossible is not the principled…

A storm may be coming. REUTERS/Marko Djurica The European Central Bank decided Wednesday to stop Greek banks from being able to use the country's government debt as collateral for loans, a move many see as a shot across the bow for Europe's politicians. It has undoubtedly brought forward the date at…

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras is excited about stopping Greece's austerity (EPA/Orestis Panagiotou) The world's worst portmanteau is back: Grexit. That's short for "Greek exit," as in Greece leaving the euro. And it's once again a possibility now that the left-wing, anti-austerity party Syriza has…