It appears that many of us have had quite a bit of a weekend these past days. Sitting here in Barcelona’s airport I can look back at some very nice dinners and conversations in the company of friends and colleagues as well as the odd stroll down La Rambla. I can also look back at some nice cul...

... is getting increasingly difficult at the moment. Take Hungary for example. I take it that most economic commentators and analyst know that it is bad in Hungary and together with Ukraine I would submit that these two face the largest risk of sporting the next global macro blowout (assuming that R...

(This entry is also posted at the RGE Euromonitor blog)  I don't know how many of my readers are dedicated followers of the day-to-day rhythm of market movements but with an important US unemployment report and a much awaited ECB interest rate decision to think about I imagine that many a trade...

Well, well, the plot thickens does it not? Certainly Thursday's more than strong hint (introductory statement and Q&A session here) that the ECB will raise rates come July is a clear sign that central banks are not at all sure about what to do. Some are revising up their inflation targets, some ...

I am not sure how familiar my readers are with my home country but recent events suggests that what hitherto has been an extraordinary expansion is now decisively coming to an end. The ingredients are well known in the form of a collapsing housing market and a endemic shortage of labour which means ...

The preliminary and 'non-broken up' GDP figures for the Eurozone economy are now out for the first quarter of 2008. In many ways, I have been in a bit of GDP mode this week as I both made a sneak peek to the Eurozone release as well as I concluded that the Baltics have now entered a recession (a pos...

I am sorry to paraphrase, arguably, one of Hollywood's better conceptions; but having left the last Fed meeting and looking towards Thursday's corresponding action in London and Frankfurt I cannot help but feel that the tail just might be wagging the dog this time around. One thing is certain; ever ...

As you can see in the post just above this one exams are forcing me to quit the blogosphere for a couple of days. As a last spurt I wanted to comment on a couple of things. First of all, the I note how the ECB is increasingly coming into the spotlight. A couple of days ago we thus got the governing ...

Last week was certainly something of an eventful week was it not? Three central bank meetings and a G7 gathering to top it off even though the latter spectacle of course was somewhat of a 'non-event' as per usual. Some anxious investors were expecting scant signs that the G7 group be inclined to act...

In times of market turmoil such as these otherwise relevant and important news often get caught in the maelstrom of incoming data. Whether this is the case here I am not sure. In any event, I think that the following small snippet (the rest is behind the firewall) from the FT is rather important. Sl...