Foreign Policy Blogs

Global Markets

US Dollar's 'Safe Haven' Global Status at Risk

US Dollar's 'Safe Haven' Global Status at Risk

Long viewed as a safe investment in times of economic turmoil, the US dollar, also known as ‘Greenbacks,’ may be losing its safe haven appeal as it suffers strong downward pressures resulting from rising oil & commodity prices, high Federal budget deficits, soaring national debts and economic uncertainty in the aftermath of several financial crises.

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Rising Oil Prices Pose New Threat to Economic Recovery

Rising Oil Prices Pose New Threat to Economic Recovery

Rising oil & food prices, unrest in the Middle East, declining house prices and a slew of other variables threaten to hamper a fragile US economic recovery.

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German Bourse Acquires NYSE in $10Bn Deal

German Bourse Acquires NYSE in $10Bn Deal

Deutsche Börse AG, owners of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and exchange operator NYSE Euronext have agreed to a merger, creating the world’s largest trading platform as the exchange industry enters a period of global consolidation. The German Bourse will be the parent company, and the newly merged company will be incorporated in the Netherlands.

Under the terms of the deal, Deutsche Börse shareholders will own 60% of the newly merged company, with NYSE shareholders controlling 40%. One Deutsche Börse share will be exchanged for one share of the new company’s stock, while each share of NYSE Euronext will be swapped for 0.47 share of the new company stock.

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Unrest in Egypt Unsettles Global Markets

Unrest in Egypt Unsettles Global Markets

Investors have largely shrugged off several of these unexpected developments recently, including the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, but the situation in Egypt has the potential to cause more widespread uncertainty in Global Markets, especially if oil and other commodities keep surging or the unrest spreads to more countries in the Middle East.

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UPDATE: Egyptian Markets Tumble as Protest Fears Escalate

UPDATE: Egyptian Markets Tumble as Protest Fears Escalate

UPDATE: Violent protests continue to rock Egypt this week, with demonstrators demanding the ouster of the country’s longtime autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak. The tension increased today when Mohammed El-Baradei, a former top official at the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency and a high-profile Mubarak opponent, who had returned to Cairo in a bid to provide a […]

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Japans Sovereign Debt Downgraded, US Next

Japans Sovereign Debt Downgraded, US Next

Standard & Poor’s, a leading credit ratings agency downgraded Japan’s long-term sovereign debt Thursday, a sharp reminder of the heavy financial obligations plaguing one of the world’s largest economies.

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Davos 2011: World Economic Forum Begins

Davos 2011: World Economic Forum Begins

The 2011 annual gathering (Jan 26-30) of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which brings together hundreds of business, political, and finance movers & shakers from around the world, began today in Davos, Switzerland, a renowned winter ski resort for the wealthy and connected.

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Markets Rally on Obama SOTU Priorities

Trade, global economic competition, job growth, the Federal deficit, spending cuts, taxes, infrastructure investments and technology innovation were the focus of President Obama’s annual State of the Union address to a newly divided Congress last night.

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Global Markets: 2010 Year in Review

Global Markets: 2010 Year in Review

Another year has sped by with more change and economic uncertainty throughout the global markets. From a journalist’s viewpoint, 2010 was filled with some of the most dynamic and complex economic trends and global market events possible. For instance, the Euro zone debt crisis, the global currency war, coverage of the international currency war – announced by Brazilian Finance Minister and precipitated by Ben Bernanke’s quantitative easing monetarist policy – the perils of high-frequency trading, and the burdensome economic impact of two-front warfare on the domestic agenda are just a few issues that led the Global Markets through a year of risk, volatility, turmoil and uncertainty.

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US-China Trade Relations Heats Up Over Steel

US-China Trade Relations Heats Up Over Steel

Ron Kirk, former Mayor of the City of Dallas and presently the Obama administration’s US Trade Representative filed suit against China with the World Trade Organization (WTO) this week, siding with the powerful United Steelworkers union, accusing Beijing of illegally subsidizing the production of wind power equipment which is an anti-competitive practice under WTO rules and harmful to American workers.

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Europeans Weary of US Bank Regulations

Europeans Weary of US Bank Regulations

According to UPI and NYTs reports about WikiLeaks diplomatic cables, ‘when the European Parliament ordered a halt in February to an American government program to monitor international banking transactions for terrorist activity, the US administration was blindsided by the rebuke from among our closest allies in continental Europe.  “Paranoia runs deep especially about US intelligence […]

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Fed Doled Free Corporate Cash During Crisis

Fed Doled Free Corporate Cash During Crisis

As financial markets shuddered and then nearly imploded in 2008, the Federal Reserve opened its vault to the corporate world — both domestic and foreign — on a scope much wider and deeper than previously disclosed.

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WikiLeaks Grave Attack on US Foreign Policy

WikiLeaks Grave Attack on US Foreign Policy

A serious trust has been breached on two levels. First, by WikiLeaks so that nary a foreign contact will wish ever to speak, or at least speak with candor, to even the lowliest Foreign Service personnel. But second, also by the notion, and the threat to life and limb, that we use our Foreign Service personnel as low-cost spies.

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US to China: Do As I Say, Not As I Do!

US to China: Do As I Say, Not As I Do!

Paraphrase of NYTs Helene Cooper’s 26 Nov 2010 article: A fundamental tenet of foreign affairs doctrine holds that sovereign nations will always define and act in their own national interests, and will rarely against their own interests. Somebody needs to tell that to the United States when it comes to China, many foreign policy experts say. A key part of America’s relationship with China now turns on a question that is, at its heart, an interminable conundrum: How to get Beijing to do what its leaders don’t believe are good for their country, but will benefit ours? From economics to climate change to currency to Iran and finally culminating with North Korea last week, America has sought to push, prod and cajole China, to little or no avail.

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Seoul G-20 Wrap-Up: So What Happened..??

Seoul G-20 Wrap-Up: So What Happened..??

G-20 world leaders meeting in Seoul, South Korea, concluded the summit late Friday by issuing a joint communiqué, with no specifics, agreeing only in general terms to curb “persistently large imbalances” in saving and spending. But deep divisions, especially over the US-China currency dispute, left G-20 officials negotiating all night to draft a watered-down statement for the leaders to endorse, keeping alive a dispute that raises fears of a global trade & currency war, and fears of rising protectionism among nations.

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