• China August preliminary HSBC manufacturing PMI at 49.8 vs. 48.9 in July.
• Norway Q2 GDP at 1.0% vse. 0.8%, 0.5% in Q1.
• Switzerland July trade surplus at CHF 2.82 bln vs. 1.77 bln in June. Despite a rise in both exports and imports, the Swiss Customs office used the phrase “Yellow light” in describing the trade figures as they did show a slowdown in growth. Note that export prices were cut 6.2% due to the high Franc.
• Eurozone August Markit Comp. Flash PMI at 51.1 vse. 50.1.
• France August Markit Comp. Flash PMI at 53.6 … …READ MORE
Tag Archives: White House
WH Faux Reg Cuts
Critical Silver Lining to US Debt Crisis
By now, most have heard of the agreement between Congress and the White House over raising the debt ceiling. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have backed the plan on the Senate floor. Senate Republicans are to meet at 10AM ET and Senate Democrats are to meet at 11AM ET to get the details of plan. Afterwards, the US Senate is scheduled to begin debate today on the plan to start an expedited legislative process.
Sunday night, Speaker of the US House John Boehner (R.-Ohio) provided the House GOP caucus a power point presentation … …READ MORE
Fed Spikes Punch Bowl
Fed Spikes Punch Bowl?
Last night, I tweeted: “How much fun will tom b if we get +150k NFP? Bernanke will hav lots o’ fun appearing b4 House Banking Ron Paul 2 explain QE2.” Well, we got 159k+ and here’s what U.S. Rep. Ron Paul said yesterday:
U.S. REP. RON PAUL, IN LINE TO HEAD HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON MONETARY POLICY, SAYS WILL PUSH TO EXAMINE FEDERAL RESERVE MONETARY POLICY DECISIONS
FEDERAL RESERVE IS ‘WAY TOO INDEPENDENT’, ‘TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL’ – PAUL
PAUL SAYS SUBCOMMITEE WILL PUSH TO AUDIT U.S. GOLD RESERVES
PAUL SAYS DOES NOT BELIEVE DOLLAR CAN BE … …READ MORE
Posted in Front Page Also tagged Ben Bernanke, congress, QE2, Ron Paul, US unemployment Leave a comment
Why Politics Matters For the US Dollar
As a reformed currency trader, I often can asked why I spend my time following what happens in politics. Does the resignation of Sen. Dodd really matter? Why should we care if Congress fights over health care or regulatory reform? What difference does it make if there’s an estate tax or not? These are all questions that seem to have very little on the surface to do with currencies and the value of the dollar.
The best answer to all of this is that it all matters. Since the 1930s and the seismic shift of US governmental intervention into the … …READ MORE
