Tag Archives: Venezuela

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.06% to 1.0776 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 06(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: investing.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Market moves have stalled. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index did manage to extend Monday’s gains, but other markets are heavier. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is snapping a three-day advance. The communications sector is the sole standout, though financials and energy are little changed....

“Inflationism, however, is not an isolated phenomenon. It is only one piece in the total framework of politico-economic and socio-philosophical ideas of our time. Just as the sound money policy of gold standard advocates went hand in hand with liberalism, free trade, capitalism and peace, so is inflationism part and parcel of imperialism, militarism, protectionism, statism and socialism.” Ludwig von Mises, On the Manipulation of Money and Credit, p. 48 Claudio Grass (CG): We have all...

“Venezuela is the current poster child of interventionist failure” When looking at the quality of the media coverage of Venezuela’s crisis and the interpretations of the factors that caused it, the superficiality of most analyses quickly becomes apparent. The explanations offered by many “experts” and commentators largely ignore the country’s history and fail to take into account the pre-existing political and economic dynamics that heavily contributed to, if not predetermined,...

Summary President Trump canceled the planned summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Malaysia’s new Finance Minister Lim was sworn in along with 13 other cabinet ministers. Philippine central bank cut reserve ratios for commercial banks by one percentage point to 18% effective June 1. The United Arab Emirates opened up its economy to more foreign investment. Brazil state-run oil company Petrobras cut the price of...

Summary: Economic data due out are unlikely to change macro views. Swiss franc’s price action suggests some return to “normalcy” despite rhetoric remaining elevated. Sterling’s 3.25 cent drop against the dollar looks over.   An escalation of threatening rhetoric by the United States and North Korea emerged as the key driver last week. The US was unable to build on the success it enjoyed at the UN on August 5...

On VoxEU, Myrvin Anthony, Narcissa Balta, Tom Best, Sanaa Nadeem, and Eriko Togo discuss the history of government debt with state contingent coupons and offer some lessons. In the mid-19th century, the Confederate states issued cotton-linked bonds In the late 1970s, Mexico issued oil-linked bonds In the 2000s, Turkey issued revenue-indexed bonds Since 2014, Uruguay issues nominal wage-issued bonds Some other examples (figure taken from the column): Obviously, confidence in data quality...

As if things were not already chaotic enough in the socialist utopia of Venezuela, following President Nicolas Maduro’s decision to follow Indian PM Modi’s playbook and announce that the nation’s largest denomination bill (100-Bolivars – worth around 3c) will be pulled from circulation in 72 hours, he has tonight closed the border to Colombia to crackdown on currency smuggling by so-called “mafias”. As AP reports,...

For us the Net National Savings Rate is the best alternative indicator to GDP growth. The Net National Savings Rate (NNSR) is rather positively correlated with the change in wealth, with the establishment of future productive capacity, the price of government bonds and currency valuations. The relationship of GDP growth to those four criteria, however, is often a negative correlation. We critized GDP growth that has...