Governments do not want to acknowledge that a Central Bank does not have the ability to bolster the economy. Monetarism has not worked. The massive purchase of corporate bonds by the Central Banks has not worked. They have been left alone to face the problem and they have failed. The solution is to activate demand and Central Banks cannot do this.
Some accounting data from US companies offers an interesting reading: there is no doubt that the behaviour of listed companies has changed with the crisis. But what is even more important is that there was a structural change quite a bit before that. US companies are now increasingly less focused on investment in tangible capital and are quickly moving towards capital which is more intangible and/or financial.
No day goes by without us being told how wonderful this year’s tourism campaign is going to be, in terms of the millions of visitors and the billions of euros it will generate. The tourism campaign is focused on the third quarter, when everyone and their aunt is getting sunburnt. There are many more jobs, workers are needed, and this is reflected in the increase in the number of hours worked, normal and extra.
There are a lot of indicators which basically show that the US economy is strong, but it’s a “weak” strength, since it has been unable to maintain average growth of 2%. A weakness I see in the US economy is investment: in the second quarter it declined, which is not a sign of strength.
Why are interest rates so low? We have explained that the reason is the weak credit situation for financing investment.
In an internal report, the IMF has confessed to errors linked to the bailouts in which it participated during the euro crisis, according to what Ambrose Evans-Prichard tells us. Just what the euro needed: explicit recognition, in black and white, that nothing could be done about the “infamy of competitive devaluation.”
Miguel Navascués | Take a look at the outstanding balances in the ECB’s TARGET2 payments system, which maintains an up-to-date record of the debts and loans each country has with the other. As can be seen from the table below and the subsequent graphics, Italy, where the banks have 360 billion euros of doubtful loans, as well as Spain, have again begun to show signs of weakness.
After Brexit, what could be more natural than for the UK to strengthen ties with the US than with Europe, which has miraculously survived thanks to the intervention of the Anglo Saxons in two wars in Europe. Perhaps one kind of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is dead: but the Europeans cannot stop another one being formed between the US and the UK.