by John E. Charalambakis | Jan 26, 2013 | Commentaries, Uncategorized
The words quoted in the title above, were pronounced by Christine Lagarde (the head of the IMF) at the Davos annual economic conference. She was referring to the EU experience in 2012. Without a doubt, the Euro zone almost collapsed last year, and her recommendation...
by John E. Charalambakis | Jan 15, 2013 | Commentaries, Uncategorized
In this week’s commentary we offer our assessment of a positive outlook for the real estate sector in 2013. We believe that real estate will outperform most – if not all – of fixed income investments in this environment of financial repression. We anticipate all real...
by John E. Charalambakis | Dec 27, 2012 | Commentaries, Uncategorized
I boarded the non-stop flight from Basle, Switzerland to Chicago. It was destined to be an exciting flight due to the persons sitting around me and the topics of their discussions. Given that life is short, let’s start with dessert (conclusion) first. As Chairman...
by John E. Charalambakis | Dec 21, 2012 | Commentaries, Uncategorized
In this commentary, we will discuss examples of how misguided policies and debates focus the public’s attention to minor issues, with the result being that the causes are not addressed, and hence the economic pain to be excruciating as years goes by. We will start...
by John E. Charalambakis | Dec 15, 2012 | Commentaries, Uncategorized
The renewal of the swap lines among the major central banks was a footnote for the financial markets and for the financial publications in the last couple of days. However, and as we have pointed out in the past, it is one of the most crucial lines that has sustained...
by John E. Charalambakis | Dec 8, 2012 | Commentaries, Uncategorized
In the last few days, some reports have been circulated – by prominent Wall Street banks –which tell us that things will return to normal in 2013. With all due respect we disagree with such an assessment for the following four fundamental reasons: First, the...