Jean-Claude Trichet’s Italian Job

By: Francis Cianfrocca (Diary)  |  August 8th at 06:20 AM  | 

Jean-Claude Trichet, the outgoing governor of the European Central Bank, just announced that the ECB will engage in purchases of euro-denominated bonds issued by Spain and Italy. This long-resisted move is intended to stem the latest flareup of the sovereign-debt heartburn that is a far greater threat to financial-market stability than the US debt downgrade. If the ECB manage to sustain this, it probably will | Read More »

Emerging Theme in Financial Markets: The US Dollar is Getting Stronger

By: Francis Cianfrocca (Diary)  |  August 11th at 08:49 AM  | 

A vast movement involving enormous amounts of capital is now underway. Investors around the world are buying dollars again. And they’re selling the oil, gold and other commodities that have been serving as a hedge against dollar weakness since the Federal Reserve started aggressively cutting interest rates eleven months ago. As I write, the US dollar is trading above $1.50 to the euro. The dollar’s | Read More »