The Federal Reserve’s unexpected inter-meeting cut of 0.75% in the Federal Funds rate to 3.5% was accompanied by a sharp rally in the dollar bond market, as the 10-year Treasury bond yield dropped to 3.4%. With inflation well above 4% and rising, one can only ask: why? Why would anyone buy the obligations of a […]

President George W. Bush, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Democrats in both Congress and the Presidential campaigns agree that a fiscal stimulus is essential. It now appears that such a stimulus, of around 1% of Gross Domestic Product, $145 billion, will be enacted, perhaps by means of a rebate of around $1,000 per taxpayer. […]

As fourth quarter earnings numbers emerge for Wall Street, with analysts expecting a $15 billion write-off for Merrill Lynch and an $18 billion write-off for Citigroup, Wall Street’s denizens, anxious for the future of their bonuses and indeed their jobs, are asking: Where will it all end? The answer is: not close to here, not […]

Tata Motors’ emergence as front-runner to buy Jaguar and Land Rover from the ailing Ford brings one question uppermost to a commentator sitting at a wealthy Western desk: Precisely which economic sectors can be relied upon in the future to provide jobs for Westerners at wages higher than are obtainable in the Third World? Will […]