currency Archive

Blog Comment on Italy

This was recently posted by a reader: I’m from Italy so I can answer your question. The general and most accepted ideas in Italy are: “The problem is president Berlusconi.” “We need structural reforms!” (In every pub people love to say that, to feel themselves intelligent, the same that are in precarious ...Read More

China Frets About Spreading EU Debt Woes

Yes, they want to support the euro with their fx reserves to support their exports to that region, but there is no equivalent of US Treasury securities that they can hold. It’s as if they could only buy US state municipal debt, and not Treasury secs, Fed deposits, and other direct obligations ...Read More

Fed foreign currency swap lines

[Skip to the end] (IF ANYONE HAS BUITER’S EMAIL ADDRESS KINDLY FORWARD THIS, THANKS) The question is, why has the Fed entered into new swap lines to be able to borrow foreign currency from several CBs who already have Fed dollar lines? Several possibilities not mutually exclusive: They may have agreed on ...Read More

Obama believes China is manipulating currency

[Skip to the end] Here we go: Think they realize exports are real costs and imports real benefits??? Obama Deems China ‘Manipulating’ Yuan, Geithner Says by Rebecca Christie and Mark Drajem Jan 22 (Bloomberg) — President Obama — backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists — believes that China ...Read More

ECB council member foresees ‘tri-polar’ currency system

[Skip to the end] (email exchange) >    >   On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 11:06 PM, wrote: >    >   Sure he can say that now so long as the Fed is there to >   backstop everything. These Europeans have no shame. >    Right, the Eurozone is surviving on the unlimited Fed USD swap lines. That’s ...Read More

Eurozone on the Brink

[Skip to the end] Hi Joseph, Agreed, and this attitude continues this morning, with comments like ‘Europe needs this slowdown to bring down inflation’ as their opinion leaders argue against a rate cut (not that a rate cut would actually help demand as they think it would, but that’s another story). It ...Read More

WSJ: An economist who matters

[Skip to the end] An economist who matters by Kyle Wingfield (Wall Street Journal) Robert Mundell isn’t in the habit of making fruitless policy recommendations, though some take a long time ripening. Nearly four decades passed between his early work on optimal currency areas and the birth of the euro in 1999 ...Read More