Scatterbrained Central Bankers
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | Recently I showed this chart [see above] to press the point against the conventional wisdom that the purpose of the sequence of QEs was to lower long term rates.
In the World
Bonuses and Job Losses: Communicating Vessels?
MADRID | By Álex García.
Pescanova and the vermin of corruption
LONDON & VIGO | By Víctor Jiménez | Chairman Juan Manuel Urgoiti recently called on partners involved in Pescanova’s rescue bargaining to avoid liquidation in a public, desperate letter addressed to shareholders, workers, creditors and ‘the wider market’. But secretly, many more operators in the industry would have not felt it as far-reached if he had included among the receivers a few ancient Greek gods, whose very human moods used to govern haphazard and catastrophe over the Old World.
“The risk of a tech stocks bubble is greater but there are pockets of opportunity”
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | Is there a risk bubble in the tech stocks? For Jonathan Cohen, CEO of TIIC Capital, a company focused on corporate debt investments, there is indeed, and it’s greater than before. However, one can still get very lucky since there are real businesses making real profits. He gives us his recipe for picking stocks and debt issues, although he confesses their “forecast for 2014 is uncertainty.”
Atomic economics
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Does anybody remember the origin of modern Economics? Yes, what did those guys—Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill—that we love to quote, try to achieve? They saw Economics just as part of a wider intellectual effort, namely philosophy or, at the very least, ethics.
Mexico: Is it Really Money What Michoacan Needs?
MEXICO CITY | By David Brunat | Mexican government is ready to invest more than $3bn in Michoacan state, which has been rampaged by extortion and assassination in the last years. It has been the raise in arms by civil self-defense forces the fact that has driven Federal authorities to search for a solution. But is it money the recipe to tackle violence?
Game on Sacyr-Panama Canal’s dispute is over… is it?
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | The delicate pulse between the consortium led by Spanish construction company Sacyr and the Panama Canal Authority has become so stressful – too many actors, several proposals coming back and forth, mutual finger-pointing, and a two-week-extension that broke into pieces on Wednesday. Or that’s what we thought. The consortium working on Panama Canal’s third set of locks says it will continue to search for a solution to finish the works by foreseen 2015, although the Panamanian administration has cut negotiations. Of course, they denied any responsibility on the breakdown. “Time is over, that is all. We will not accept any blackmail,” PCA’s president said. Is this really the end of discussions or is the game still on?
What If North Dakota Had The Same Power Over The Fed Than Germany Does Over The ECB?
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | Even if all economic indicators suggest that the ECB should cut interest rates at today’s meeting, it seems unlikely to do so, and follow Germany -its main shareholder- instead. I tried to imagine what would be of the US if North Dakota yielded the same power over the Fed as Germany does over the ECB.
Italy Accuses Rating Agencies of Ignoring Its Patrimony- Should Spain, Greece Join In?
OP-ED By Ana Fuentes | Italy’s Corte dei Conti has opened an investigation against rating agencies for unjustified downgrading of the country in 2011 and 2012. S&P, Fitch and Moody’s face a potentially huge claim of €234bn for not considering Italy’s contribution to the world’s cultural patrimony. Will other countries follow Rome? Should the Parthenon or the Alhambra be taken into account when deciding Greece or Spain sovereign debt value?
Is Lenovo a threat to US national security?
ASIA-PACIFIC COMMENTS by Ray Kwong | If China’s biggest PC maker gets the nod to buy Motorola’s handset unit and IBM’s low-end server business for a total of US$5.2 billion, it will become the world’s 800-pound gorilla of information tech. If it doesn’t, only CFIUS will know why.