The results of the elections held in Greece last Sunday may well have sent a powerful signal to politicians and policy makers worldwide, that has yet to be discussed by the press. That message simply says: “We are no longer your useful idiots”. It seems that for many...

From last weekend’s IMF meetings we learned that its “firepower” had increased substantially by over $400 billion to be used as needed in light of the deteriorating situation in Europe. That seems a bit contradictory given that it was the IMF that warned earlier last...

The figure below shows the six forces which we believe are at work in determining the trajectory of the Euro in the foreseeable future. The analysis below discusses the six forces that are affecting the Euro’s future and hence the Euro zone’s potential. We present the...

The markets were rattled in the last few days. Let’s review what the conventional wisdom underwrote as the main causes (we use the plural causes, since the explanation was changing almost on a daily basis, as heuristics – the hard wired tendency of humans to perform...

The risks in the global economy remain due to Europe’s problems in the banking and fiscal spheres as well as due to the hundreds of trillions of dollars in toxic derivatives that freely flow in the seas of finance. The complacency seen is truly unbearable given the...

A friend was telling me lately that it seems that there are two kinds of people: Those who chose the door that leads to paradise and those who choose the door that leads into a discussion group about the paradise. His point was that several times in our lives we miss...

It has long been our position that the debt market should be viewed as a market for third-party liabilities. Its growth advances leverage and brings with it diminishing returns since more and more funds are needed to produce a dollar of profits and of GDP. The growth...

We just want to erase from our memories the happenings of last fall, when the markets were dropping nervously while searching for signs of life. The swap lines announced by the Fed last November infused hope and allowed the ECB to start the cheapening of collateral...

Last week we posted the presentation that Chairman Volcker gave at Warwick University approximately thirty-three years ago. We believe that speech set the foundation for a great economic reversal that revitalized the global economy. As we pointed out in the...

It is again with distinct honor and pleasure that we bring to our readers a presentation-talk that former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Mr. Paul Volcker made approximately 33 years ago at Warwick University. At that time Mr. Volcker was President of the...