Does Thought‐Leadership Equate to Economic Propaganda?

Referencing the Quotable section above, I wonder what “thought leadership” really means. When I hear such a term used to describe any government body my instincts tell me it can’t mean anything positive, regardless of its intent. Kind of reminds me of those Newspeak terms popularized by George Orwell in 1984 – doublethink, telescreen, ingsoc, etc.

Anyway, the quotable refers to the most recent comments by People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou. Yes, I know I got on him for his comments on Monday, but he wants the attention so I am going to give it to him ...

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Published: 26 March 2009
Written by Editor
Forex  

Japanese Exports Fall 49.4% in February – Enough said?

“Analysts expressed hopes that the Chinese government's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus spending package would eventually ease the downturn, which has hammered Asian economies that are heavily reliant on exports for growth,” according to Reuters.

“Demand fell across all regions. Exports to Europe dropped a record 54.7 percent, shipments to Asia declined 46.3 percent and goods sent to China slumped 39.7 percent,” Bloomberg reported.

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Published: 25 March 2009
Written by Editor
Forex  

me..an..der

–verb (used without object)
1. to proceed by or take a winding or indirect course: The stream meandered through the valley.

2. to wander aimlessly; ramble: The talk meandered on. To meander or not to meander, that is the question!

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Published: 23 March 2009
Written by Editor

Despite Banana Republic cat calls from the usual suspects it’s still only a correction, we think …

The gold bugs are smelling blood. The new global currency crowd is out in full. And of course, just like that, we should all give up our sovereignty to some global policy committee so they can determine monetary policy for all. This stuff borders on kookburger land!

But this same crowd of course believes we are the kook‐burgers for daring to utter the term—dollar bull market. Yo! In case this crowd hasn’t been watching, the everdoomed US dollar has rallied 27% to its high near 9000 on the dollar index since July of last year. Not a bad investment, even though the broken‐clock‐theory‐the‐dollar‐is‐dirtcrowd seems to hate. Don’t hate!

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Published: 20 March 2009
Written by Editor
Forex  

Is the yen the canary in the coal mine for a currency analysis?

Growing economic risk in Japan, reflected in the plunge in the Nikkei 225 stock index, seems to be finally hurting instead of helping the Japanese yen. So on our market tone scale, i.e. price action relative to the news, we would say the yen is acting normally for a change.

Starting in late 2004, the correlation between the Japanese yen and Japan’s stock market has been relatively tight. A falling stock market meant increased economic risks and increased economic risk meant repatriation back into Japan by major players.

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Published: 18 March 2009
Written by Editor
Forex  
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