The US Fed’s new QE2 Lifeboat programme designed to raise asset prices got off to a bad start last week, with most stock markets falling, rather than rising. It has also begun to run into major opposition from advisors to the new Republican-dominated Congress, with an open letter published Monday in the Wall Street Journal […]
Chemicals and the Economy
G-20 delivers “platitudes” as Obama hits at China
The blog has a simple measure for the effectiveness of international meetings. It counts the number of words in the communiqué. The logic behind this is that when people are really focused, they get down to business. When they waffle, then you know nothing will happen. The history of the recent G-20 meetings seems to […]
Warsh calls for “better policies” as G-20 meets
US Fed Governor Kevin Warsh is one of the few policymakers to focus on reality rather than wishful thinking. He pointed out nearly 3 years ago that liquidity should not be mistaken for capital, although others continue to ignore this uncomfortable fact. Now, in advance of tomorrow’s G-20 meeting of the world’s richest economies, he […]
US Fed launches its $600bn QE2 Lifeboat
So now its official. This week, the US Federal Reserve confirmed it was launching its ‘QE2 Lifeboat’. It will inject $600bn into the US economy, in yet another bid to kick-start full economic recovery. Clearly, this is a major initiative by the world’s most important central bank. Will it work? And what might it mean […]
Crude oil continues to trade in its ‘Triangle’
An unnatural calm continues to dominate crude oil trading. Prices may move up or down by $2/bbl or $3/bbl a day, but then they always return to where they started, between the upper red line and the lower green one. The blog has kept its promised eye on developments, since this trend of ‘trading in […]
Budgeting for Uncertainty
When elephants fight, those around them need to be cautious. And this is the prospect for 2011-13, as the Western countries try to force the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) to export less and import more, the so-called ‘rebalancing’ strategy. Thus Budgeting for Uncertainty seems the right title for the blog’s annual Outlook for […]
Bank of England endorses New Normal
The Bank of England has become the first major central bank to endorse the argument that we are moving towards a ‘New Normal’. In an important speech this week, its Governor Mervyn King, set out the argument that we can look forward to: “a SOBER decade – a decade of Savings, Orderly Budgets, and Equitable […]
Uncertainty rules in petrochemicals
The blog’s former ICI colleague, Tom Crotty, aptly summarised the mood of most petchem players at this week’s meeting in Budapest, Hungary, when telling ICIS’ Nigel Davis that “2011 is a very tough call to forecast”. Crotty is this year’s president of EPCA (European Petrochemical Association), and it was clear from the blog’s discussions that […]
Traders focus on correlations, not fundamentals
Investors on Wall Street are no longer bothering with the boring detail of company performance. That’s the conclusion from a new study by Barclays Capital, on the correlation between movements in the S&P 500 and individual stocks. Instead, they are piling into the ‘correlation trade’, as high-speed computers now often account for over 60% of […]
Japan leads round of competitive devaluations
The blog remains very concerned that, overall, the economic policies adopted during the current Crisis are leading the world economy to the worst possible outcome. This outcome is totally predictable. Indeed it has been predicted by reputable experts for some years. Yet most policymakers still seem intent on dealing with symptoms rather than causes. As […]
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