Milton Friedman won his Nobel Prize for demonstrating the centrality of monetary policy to an economy. As a profound believer in monetarism, I would be the last to question his wisdom. Nevertheless, there are times when other economic events have made any politically feasible monetary policy entirely irrelevant. In the United States, we now appear […]

Over the last few years, emerging market investment has been overwhelmingly centered around the concept of the “BRIC” group of emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China. These countries were supposed to be the giants of 2050 and the only emerging markets that a truly Important institutional investor should consider, because of their liquidity. […]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s call Tuesday for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises dedicated to housing lending, to reduce their outstanding assets below the current $1.4 trillion is a classic political statement. It will have no effect in practice, except to insulate Bernanke somewhat from criticism once Freddie and Fannie are […]

It’s impossible to tell when the world’s stock markets will finally wake up from their easy-money induced stupor, but one thing is clear: when they do so the initial break will look like last Tuesday. A modest event of no apparent global significance will cause a stock market drop that cascades around the world, producing […]