What has Ben Bernanke wrought? Since the FED CHAIRMAN uttered that Phrase “FISCAL CLIFF” at the now infamous April 25 press conference, the S&P has dropped more than 6% (take out month-end window dressing). Investors were unnerved by the Bernanke acknowledgement of a huge drop in GDP if the Washington politicos did not start to deal with the problem of fiscal retrenchment that awaits. It has been estimated that the hit from spending cuts and tax increases will result in at least a 3.5% hit to U.S. growth. It was Bernanke that lit the fuse and today the CBO weighed in with its great concern over the “fiscal cliff.”
Posts Tagged ‘G-8’
Notes From Underground: How Many Pinheads Can Sit Atop An Angela?
May 22, 2012As I looked at the photos from the G-8 conference, this caption became obvious. The German Chancellor is the belle of the ball as her Germany has what the World is crying for: surplus wealth in a debt-laden world. The pressure was on Chancellor Merkel to provide enough EUROS for short-term triage on the European nations hemorrhaging wealth from the huge amount of debt owed to many global creditors. As the communique revealed, there were few concrete proposals provided by the G-8 “brain trust” except that Germany “ought” to provide the financial backstop for all of Europe and, thus, the rest of the world. President Obama is well aware that any financial collapse in Europe will weigh heavily upon his reelection potential.
Notes From Underground: Facebook and the G-8 … How Much Hype Can We Take?
May 20, 2012The media frenzy around Facebook should be a lesson to all the CHEERLEADERS living a parasitic existence off the efforts to establish legitimacy to casino capitalism. Days prior to the FACEBOOK’S IPO, the financial media was racing against itself to lift the price of FACEBOOK on its first day of trading. Anything less than a 50% increase on day one would be a major disappointment. The fact that FB closed virtually unchanged from the offering price resulted in the entire stock market closing lower as the failure of FB to rise dramatically was deemed to be a statement about the overall lack of optimism on the part of investors. When the screen screamers and cheerleaders raise expectations in a rush to be the most inane, the failed expectations can lead to disappointment. Too much TOUTING and HYPE can make financial anchors long for the DOT-COM era.
Notes From Underground: OPEN LETTER TO FINANCE MINISTER AZUMI–IT IS THE EURO/YEN AZUMI-SAN
October 31, 2011Last Monday in NOTES, the possibility of YEN intervention was discussed following the news of VW overtaking Toyota in the race for gaining market share. It was not GM, Chrysler or Ford that overtook Toyota but VW, a EURO based auto producer. Sunday evening, the BOJ, under the direction of Finance Minister Jun Azumi, moved to intervene in the FX to attempt to stem the continued strength of the YEN. The initial round of intervention has worked as the YEN futures on the IMM dropped 300 points on a one minute bar and never recovered. In its most recent interventions, the effort by the Ministry of Finance failed as Japanese investors continued to repatriate money as the global financial situation remained so uncertain.
Notes From Underground: Sarkozy will borrow Trichet’s Mask and go as Marshal Petain for Halloween
October 30, 2011The more things in Europe are reported as “calming,” the stranger the news stories that emanate from the various European capitols. In the weekend Financial Times it was reported that President Sarkozy told his citizens that they needed to act more like Germans. If France is to avoid slipping into a terrible sovereign DEBT CRISIS the French are going to have to adopt German-style frugality and a better work ethic. Sarkozy believes that the 35-hour work week must change for as France worked less, the Germans invoked the HARTZ IV program of structural changes to its labor force. Under the leadership of Gerhard Schroeder, the German unions voted for labor austerity in exchange for business not exporting jobs to lower-cost regions in Eastern Europe.
Notes From Underground (REPRINT): We don’t want the diminutive Frechman walking under our radar screen
October 3, 2010FROM AUGUST 26:
As we wait for the news out of Jackson Hole, we have been reading the articles regarding France’s President Sarkozy laying out another of his ambitious agendas for global issues as France takes on the presidency of the G-20 and G-8. We bring this to our readers attention for there is nothing more dangerous than a small Frenchman trying to exert his influence upon the world. Sarkozy is at most times just an irritant, but going into 2011 he becomes a danger.
Sarkozy is under fire in France for the malaise of the French economy and also for immigration issues. The president’s popularity has slid faster than Obama’s so he is looking at the world stage to resurrect his political standing. (Currently, he is trailing the Socialist Dominique Strauss Kahn in the current polls for the 2012 election.) Kahn is presently the head of the IMF, which gives him a respected global institution on which to launch his presidential ambitions. Sarkozy, being the meglomanic he is, will push the G-20′s agenda to serve the purposes of domestic French policy. He has been heard demanding a new Bretton Woods to “fix” currency rates and limit fluctuations. He has also stressed the need for limits on the flows of global capital. In addition, he has advocated the need for heavy regulation of the financial system, especially reforms and regulations, which would result in the curtailing the influence of London and Wall Street.
In an article in yesterday’s Financial Times and today’s Wall Street Journal, he lays out his agenda and it is aggressive and so very French. At its heart, the agenda aims to curtail the influence of the Anglo-American model of capitalism. If the U.S. were to need a depreciated dollar to boost its exports, at what rate should the DOLLAR be “fixed”? What view will the French leader take to solve the PIIGS problem and how will he go about at suggesting that the Germans need to correct their massive trade surplus?
A politically wounded, dimunitive French leader should always cause the world concern. Put it on your radar screens for it is a guarantee that the French president will provide pyrotechnics to the markets. When France held the EU presidency, Sarkozy was credited with many achivements in his hyper method of governing, jumping from issue to another. We failed to see any successes but when you have Carla Bruni standing tall behind you it is easy to look past small accomplishments.
Notes From Underground: We do not want the Diminutive Frenchman walking under our radar screen
August 26, 2010As we wait for the news out of Jackson Hole, we have been reading the articles regarding France’s President Sarkozy laying out another of his ambitious agendas for global issues as France takes on the presidency of the G-20 and G-8. We bring this to our readers attention for there is nothing more dangerous than a small Frenchman trying to exert his influence upon the world. Sarkozy is at most times just an irritant, but going into 2011 he becomes a danger.
Notes From Underground: G-20 is waste of time and energy; finreg is just a waste
June 27, 2010Germany added liquidity but it was all directed at the British goalie David James–nothing austere about their World Cup peformance. The news from the G-20 was as expected: Nothing short of a waste of time and the resulting communique will be the paradigm of vacuousness. The Chinese took center stage in that they spoke up for the developing nations, stating they wanted input in the discussions about global problems. We agree with the Chinese that the G-8 is an atavistic appendage of a past colonial world and is merely the delusional forum for those wishing to hold onto a past that left the arena long ago. Yes, we are sure that Russia, Brazil and the others that make up the most robust members of the emerging world want to advise the likes of Italy, Spain and France who have certainly failed to get their own economic houses in order.