by John E. Charalambakis | Aug 16, 2010 | Commentaries
As readers of our publications, presentations, and commentaries could confirm, for quite some time now we have been talking about the dangers of over-collateralization, especially of collateralizing paper-assets a.k.a. financial instruments of various forms. Moreover,...
by John E. Charalambakis | Aug 12, 2010 | Commentaries
James Cain’s book The Postman Always Rings Twice is an allegory of greed, passion, judgment, and even divine intervention. Frank (the novel’s main character) got away with murder the first time. However, the second time around he was wrongly convicted for murder. Here...
by John E. Charalambakis | Aug 9, 2010 | Commentaries
In our June newsletter, we announced that in a few months we will publish our research on what we believe to be a Chinese bubble. In that issue we showed how the Chinese coincidental and leading indicators point to a slowdown in China. Since then, the numbers have...
by John E. Charalambakis | Aug 5, 2010 | Commentaries
The period from the mid 1980s to the middle of 2007 is known as the period of great moderation, when inflation was low and stable, unemployment also was low, utilized capacity pretty high, productivity growth rate very healthy, interest rates stable and declining,...
by John E. Charalambakis | Aug 3, 2010 | Commentaries
The following is a series of thoughts about the threat of deflation knocking at the door of the U.S. economy. The U.S. economic growth is most dependent on the consuming culture of its citizens as it comprises 70% of our GDP. Yet the last decade saw the trend of...
by John E. Charalambakis | Jul 29, 2010 | Commentaries
The stress tests for Europe’s banking system have come and gone and now we feel obliged to provide you with our take. We prefer not to trust the fox guarding the chicken coop just yet. The stress tests are a pinnacle example of the world of finance that has gripped us...