La Caixa research team, in Barcelona | The role played recently by central banks in the current scenario is being decisive. Since 2008, they have demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to take decisions and act in response to the financial shocks occurring. Thanks to this sustained commitment they are achieving, at least in part, their desired goals of relaxing tension in the capital markets and boosting economic activity. As is usual, the…
NEW YORK | One of the keys of the severe financial crisis in the US were “liar loans”, given to people who did not even have a job. Four years later, many worthy homebuyers are paying for that. Banks have become so restrictive in their mortgages that many citizens are frozen out of the housing market, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday. Bernanke said home mortgage credit outstanding…
NEW YORK | The debate between austerity or growth to cure Europes illness is in full swing. Austerians are, though, losing support. A consensus is growing that current cuts alone aren’t likely to tackle the euro zone crisis. For US celebrity economist and director of the Earth Institute Jeffrey Sachs, “Fiscal policy alone won’t save Europe,” he said in the launch of the Center on Global Economic Governance at Columbia…
From a Morgan Stanley research note, a cautionary tale on what happens when the US Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing tap is closed and, more globally, when central banks stop supporting currently struggling economies in the developed countries. Analysts describe QE termination as one of the main risks of the next stage in the cycle… in Europe, too. “Our analysis of European equities around the first hike by the Fed historically…
MADRID | Analysts at Barclays said Tuesday in a report that they are less than convinced that the productive capacity of the US economy, the famous output gap, is as large as the Federal Reserve believes. And the consequences of this realisation spell further trouble for any global economic recovery. According to Barclays experts in Madrid, once investors acknowledge that China’s GDP is slowing and that the stimulus measures may…
MADRID | At Barclays Spain, analysts have spotted an oddity. They say that in the United States market participants seem to discount two elements that appear to be contradictory: on one hand, that the Federal Reserve will keep its expanding monetary policy going on for the time being, something that Ben Bernanke would have made clear last Monday; and on the other hand, that the US economy will grow above expectations. “but the…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | The US economy is on its way up to the growth heaven while others, like Europe, live under the knife. Broad money or M3 volumes have increased in the US by 10pc. In terms of what it is strictly required, the Federal Reserve is fulfilling its duties. The broad money supply includes factors of money supply and money and credit demand, which means that there is activity in all money and financial markets. The…
His message was clear, no frills: “We are paying the consequences of Germany and France breaking the Fiscal Pact in 2003,” stated Spain’s economy minister Luis de Guindos on Friday at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington. In his first official visit to the US, Mr De Guindos tried to spur US confidence, explaining the key points of financial and labour reforms in Spain. “Europe and Spain’s main problem…
“We have a plan to combine fiscal consolidation with structural reforms in order to jumpstart growth in the country and help stabilize the euro area.” This was the core message of the Spanish minister of Economy and Competiveness Luis de Guindos’ speech on Friday at the Brookings Institution, a center-left Washington-based think tank. In his first official trip to the US, De Guindos also held a meeting with the most…
By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | Markets around the world are flooded with huge loads of fresh cash pumped in by central banks. The balance sheets of central banks have tripled since 2008. And yet monetary supply is lagging behind. Don’t put the blame on banks. Their assets are shrinking as a result of the massive reshuffle in credit exposure undertaken by enterprises and individuals. A grim outlook is…