In the recent unpleasantness, the US made some progress towards solving its biggest economic problem of recent years: the lack of US savings. Regrettably, in the latest figures the beginnings of economic recovery have brought backsliding, with the savings rate dropping back from 6% to 4.3%. Without more savings, as global liquidity declines the US […]

Goldman Sachs’ income from trading and principal investment rose 90% in the third quarter, while allocated remuneration per employee soared 46% to $527,000 in the first nine months of 2009. Good luck to them, but it shows once again that they and to a lesser extent the rest of Wall Street, are currently playing a […]

The Financial Times last Tuesday noted a disturbing new trend – hedge fund and other investors are increasingly seeking to invest in physical commodities themselves, rather than in futures. Given the excess of global liquidity, this is not entirely surprising. It does however raise an ominous possibility of a supply shortage in one or more […]

The Federal Open Market Committee in its latest statement September 23 announced that it was considering ways to reverse the unprecedented torrent of liquidity it has pumped into the US financial system, but that interest rates will remain near zero for a prolonged period. Apart from the question of when the Fed should move, that […]