links for 2010-10-05

How Fake Money Saved Brazil : Planet Money : NPR (Complete story/podcast is on Planet Money's podcast – see right panel) This is a story about how an economist and his buddies tricked the people of Brazil into saving the country from rampant inflation. They had a crazy, unlikely plan, and it worked… You have … Read more

Despite Robust Economic Conditions, Australia Holds Interest Rates Steady…for Now

While most of the Western industrial world struggles with deflationary fears, Australia continues to worry about inflation. In tonight’s latest release on monetary policy, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens states: “If economic conditions evolve as the Board currently expects, it is likely that higher interest rates will be required, at some point, … Read more

links for 2010-10-04

Adopting China’s Tactics in Currency Fight – NYTimes.com …the rest of the world is beginning to mimic the technique China has perfected: manipulating currencies for national advantage, while resisting political pressure from trading partners. (tags: currency China trade_policy Brazil Japan) Man Vs. Machine: Commentary—Shouldn’t the SEC Focus on High Frequency Products? – CNBC The SEC’s … Read more

Federal Reserve 1, Bank of Japan 0

As the world’s currency wars rage on, the Federal Reserve is re-emerging as the “victor.” The dollar index looks ready to erase all its gains for 2010 on the heels of the Fed’s threat to roll out quantitative easing (QE) Part 2. This threat in turn came on the heels of the Bank of Japan’s … Read more

links for 2010-10-01

Brazil warns of world currency war – Telegraph The world is in an "international currency war" as governments manipulate their currencies to improve their export competitiveness, said Guido Mantega, the Brazilian Finance Minister. (tags: Brazil currency trade_policy forex)

A Soaring September for Solar

Canadian Solar (CSIQ): 20% Evergreen Solar (ESLR): 20% Yingli Green Energy (YGE): 14% JA Solar Holdings (JASO): 11% Trina Solar (TSL): 10% ReneSola (SOL): 9% These solar companies are the top six performing solar companies in my watchlist….not for the month or the year, but for the last TWO DAYS. While only three of the … Read more

BoE’s Posen Must Be Sleeping Well At Night Now

“It’s the main question that keeps me and my colleagues at the MPC up at night. That’s why in our last set of forecasts….we stressed there are upside risks. The slack in the economy is not pushing down on inflation the way we’d like…core inflation is higher in the UK; it’s not dragging down like … Read more

links for 2010-09-29

Data Wonks Debut Dizzying Diagram of Flash Crash – MarketBeat – WSJ After slicing the order-flow down to 25 milliseconds, Nanex’s Eric Hunsader says he sees the footprints of the destabilizing practice of quote stuffing. The theory regarding quote stuffing is that it clogs up the quote feeds and allows high frequency traders to profit … Read more

Still Expecting Housing to Bounce Along the Bottom Until 2013

For the past few months, I pestered my youngest brother to write a review of his cogent 2009 analysis of the housing market. In that post, he predicted housing would bottom in April, 2010 and as late as 2013 in a worst case scenario. He has finally produced the follow-up, and I post it below. … Read more