While all eyes are on what central banks will do with interest rates, consumers and investors alike should really worry about what commercial banks will do.
Continue readingTag Archives: ECB
Why the ECB is in no hurry to fight inflation
The euro has lost a lot of ground versus other major currencies as the European Central Bank (ECB) is taking a very dovish stance even compared to the usually dovish Bank of England.
As expected, a German has the difficult task of being a lone hawk amid doves: Isabel Schnabel, member of the ECB’s Governing Board, recently warned that the central bank has consistently been wrong in its inflation forecasts.
Continue readingECB pays lip service to worries about inflating a housing bubble
The European Central Bank (ECB) raised its inflation target last week, at the same time going to great lengths to try to persuade people that it did not.
In the process, the central bank also stated that it will find a way to deal with an issue that is increasingly pressing: that of runaway house price inflation.
Continue readingBlack box or Pandora’s box? Central bankers face dilemma
By Mirela Roman
This “like-no-other” Covid-19 pandemic is clearly a dangerously unique event, with ongoing severe economic and social consequences all around the globe. Nassim Taleb has famously described the Black Swan and more recently, BIS researchers pointed to the Green Swan in reference to the impact of climate change.
But the Covid-19 Swan is quite a combination of colours. It is an ongoing emergency situation, with fear often overcoming hope while anxiety heightens amid a decline in living standards.
Central banks cannot paper over the cracks of populism
Central banks are trying to prolong the decade-old bull market, but it looks like instead of reassuring investors, this makes them nervous.
The end of money printing is not the end of the world
How afraid should investors be of the end of quantitative easing? Judging by recent comments, but also by the markets’ reaction until now, not too afraid.
Central banks have bad news for property investors
As the major central banks are slowly retreating from their policy of asset purchases, we will probably witness some of the side effects of this withdrawal.
Warren Buffett famously said that “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” The tide is going out only slowly, but we are beginning to see, at least in the UK, the damage the ultra loose monetary policy has done.
Market moving info — week starting July 10, 2017
Here’s a summary of last week’s market moving news and a look ahead to the data, events and earnings reports that are likely to move the markets in the week starting July 10, 2017.
Last week:
- The US economy created more jobs than expected, with 222,000 new positions in June compared with expectations of 178,000. But wage growth was tepid, at just 2.5%.
Market moving info — week starting July 3, 2017
Here’s a summary of last week’s market moving news and a look ahead to the data, events and earnings reports that are likely to move the markets in the week starting July 3, 2017.
Last week:
- The savings ratio in the UK fell to a record low 1.7% in the first quarter, from 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Market moving info — week starting June 26, 2017
Here’s a summary of last week’s market moving news and a look ahead to the data, events and earnings reports that are likely to move the markets in the week starting June 26, 2017.
Last week:
- Negotiations on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union started in Brussels amid warnings by both Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney that a “soft” Brexit is needed in order to prevent a deep fall in living standards.