By Mark Mobius, Templeton Emerging Markets Group After months (if not years) of speculation and debate, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) has left the financial markets in a holding pattern once again, deciding to keep its benchmark short-term interest rate steady at near zero. In our view as investors in emerging markets, this isn’t necessarily positive news, … Continue reading
By Stratfor Global Intelligence The ongoing corruption scandal at state-owned energy firm Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, could pose a real political risk to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, particularly as Brazil’s economic conditions worsen. The ruling Workers’ Party will have to cope with a stagnating, if not declining, economy for at least two more years, dwindling … Continue reading
As the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold following the FOMC decision on Thursday, uncertainty on this decision had thus driven Indonesia’s currency into a 10th week of declines, which is its longest losing streak since 2000. U.S. Fed Chief Janet Yellen said that most policy makers want to hike interest rates this year, however … Continue reading
By Mike Whitney After 6 full years of zero rates and extreme pump-priming that flushed more than $10 trillion dollars into global markets, the Federal Reserve decided that even the slightest uptick in its benchmark Fed Funds rate would trigger enough destructive volatility in emerging markets that it would be better to postpone the rate hike … Continue reading
In Venezuela, things are going from bad to worse amid a tumble in the price of global oil, a plunge in the nation’s currency, consumer goods shortages, and hyperinflation combined with a social and political upheaval which could undermine the country’s willingness or ability to pay its external debt, Jefferies warns. Venezuela relies heavily on oil, as it accounts for … Continue reading
By Paolo Mauro, Jan Zilinsky The public narrative on austerity is shaped by simple scatter plots purporting to portray the large negative impact of fiscal ‘austerity’ on economic growth. This column argues that, while recognising concerns about causality, economists should systematically explore correlations and multiple regressions, and test their robustness. The results reveal a mixed picture, … Continue reading
By George Magnus Spurring frenetic speculation in the days before, the U.S. Federal Reserve left its policy rate unchanged at Thursday’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee in Washington. Markets still expect a rise in policy rates before the end of the year, which would herald a restrained tightening cycle through to the end … Continue reading
By F. William Engdahl By the day it’s becoming clearer that what I have recently been saying in my writings is coming to be. The OPEC oil-producing states of the Middle East, including Iran, through the skillful mediation of Russia, are carefully laying the foundations for a truly new world order. The first step in testing … Continue reading
By Martin Feldkircher The United States Federal Reserve is the world’s most powerful bank, and its most powerful component is the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the twelve men and women who meet eight times a year to determine – essentially by setting interest rates – the monetary policy of the world’s largest economy. The last … Continue reading
By Andrew Harding As it tussles with multiple crises of political legitimacy and governance, Malaysia has reached a decisive point in its more than half-century history as an independent nation. What started as a shocking but not exceptional scandal has turned into a political crisis of unprecedented proportions. This was underlined by the Bersih 4 protests on … Continue reading