By now, everyone monitoring the developments in the Middle East can’t help but liken them to dominos: once the first dictatorship fell (in Tunisia), the rest were just a matter of time. Of course societies do not behave like toys – what is common among the revolting populations of the Middle East is that they […]
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is credited with facilitating India’s economic liberalization in 1991, is currently under pressure over concerns of price rise and increasing inflation. Thanks to the economic reforms of the 1990s a color television in India is much cheaper today than it was two decades ago. However, the cost of food items […]
How do you cope when your main source of political good will depends on money and that money dries up? Demand for oil just ain’t what it used to be. The shrinking of state revenues (regardless of the price of oil) is putting a cramp in the political and social largess of two countries — […]
The Venezuelan government finally blinked when it came to financial pressures by devaluing its currency on January 8th. The rate of the Bolivar Fuerte had been pegged at 2.15 to the dollar and is now 2.6 for essential supplies and 4.3 for luxury goods. Last week the value of the dollar on the parallel market […]
Although oil prices recently reached a 1-year high, the Venezuelan economy continues to struggle. Last week the government announced a series of steps intended to promote growth and raise employment, while reducing inflation. More information can be found here. In terms of specifics, the Venezuelan economy grew at 4.8% last year, but GDP declined by […]
Asia Times Online has several great articles out this week on Southeast Asia: – Vietnam could be facing another currency crisis. The Vietnamese Dong may crash due to the governments unsustainable trade and spending deficits. Apparently, things got out of hand as early as late 2007, when Vietnam started printing Dong based off of the […]
Oil has finished higher during 16 of the last 20 trading sessions and seven straight as it continues to rise from lows in February. Although it looks set to close lower today as traders cash in on recent gains, the price has increased over 110% over the past four months. But the fundamental drivers over […]
China called for the creation of a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world’s standard, proposing a sweeping overhaul of global finance that reflects developing nations’ growing unhappiness with the U.S. role in the world economy.
The FOMC today announced plans to buy $300B in treasuries and up to $750B in mortgage-backed securities, effectively agreeing to print a trillion dollars. Well, we knew the money had to come from somewhere. When the federal government wants money, there are four places they can get it: 1) Take from other parts of the […]