The Great Debate UK
Germany should be happy to let Greece go
When the Greek crisis began, there was much talk of contagion as the greatest short-term risk. In my view, this worry is almost irrelevant because bondholders are in any case facing a haircut of over 70%, so the question of default or bailout is now merely a technical detail.
From a longer term perspective, there is also little reason for the Germans to panic over a Greek default, even if it ultimately leads to the disintegration of the euro zone. The line peddled by a number of commentators and politicians that Germany has “done very well out of the euro zone” begs the question of how well it would have done without the euro zone, a question to which I do not know the answer – but nor does anyone else.
The implicit or explicit claim is that, with floating exchange rates, German trade would have suffered as the DM appreciated against the currencies of its neighbours. This is nonsense, a case of how, in the world of popular economics – what one colleague famously called D-I-Y economics – exchange rates occupy a position of exaggerated importance (If those who study the subject were given the same importance, I’d have had a peerage by now).
If exchange rate appreciation were so damaging and depreciation so beneficial to a country’s trade, the Swiss would by now be the poorest country in Europe and the Italians the richest. The reality is that, while there may be short term dislocations, the effect of changes in the value of a currency are ephemeral. Devaluations are self-defeating because they push up costs until the country’s terms of trade are back where they started, and the opposite for appreciations: a rise in the value of a country’s currency makes its imports cheaper, reducing its inflation rate and restoring its competitiveness as time passes. The process of adjustment seems to take some six or seven years, which might seem a window of opportunity worth seizing for opportunistic devaluation. The fly in the ointment, however, is that the more rapidly a currency depreciates, the more agents in the economy wise up and start anticipating the next depreciation, speeding up the adjustment and thereby narrowing the window of opportunity for exporters.
Hungary: The Greece of Eastern Europe
By Kathleen Brooks. The opinions expressed are her own.
It used to be Greece that was the canary in the coal mine, these days it’s Hungary. The new year got off to a bad start for the Eastern European nation after it experienced a failed bond auction, causing its bond yields to surge.
This caused major jitters across global financial markets and once again a small, relatively unknown economy is dominating the headlines and causing a massive headache for the European authorities.
Is there such a thing as a real safe haven?
By Kathleen Brooks. The opinions expressed are her own.
There are traditional relationships that the financial markets respect. For example, when the markets are tanking the world wants to own safe havens like the yen, the Swiss franc, U.S. debt and gold. If volatility spikes investors go into auto-mode and are almost pre-programmed to purchase these asset classes.
But just how safe are the safe havens? Both the Japanese and Swiss authorities intervened to limit the appreciation of their currencies in recent days. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) did so first by slashing interest rates and announcing a new QE program to flood the economy with money to try and put downward pressure on the franc. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) embarked on something similar, but they directly intervened and sold yen in the markets.
Why we have to support Ireland
– Laurence Copeland is a professor of finance at Cardiff University Business School. The opinions expressed are his own. –
Supporting Ireland to the tune of a few billion quid must look like a no-brainer to the British Government. We should not make the same mistake as the Germans, who managed to get the worst of both worlds over Greece – forced by the scale of their bank exposure to support Greece, but providing the money with ill will, causing bitterness rather than gratitude – and now repeating the error in the Irish case.
When is it the Fed’s cue to leave?
The Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing to the tune of $600bn put a firework under a trend that started back in August when Fed Governor Ben Bernanke first touted the idea of providing more monetary policy support to the US economy. Risky assets are in demand and the market is happy to sell dollars.
After digesting the Fed’s statement released after its meeting, investors aren’t willing to stand in the Fed’s way as it keeps its hand on the monetary policy trigger: “The Committee will continue to monitor the economic outlook and financial developments and will employ its policy tools as necessary to support the economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate.”
from The Great Debate:
U.S., China and eating soup with a fork
-The opinions expressed are the author's own-
Are economists the world over using an outdated tool to measure economic progress?
The question, long debated, is worth pondering again at a time when two economic giants, the United States and China, are sparring over trade, currency exchange rates and their roles in the global economy.
Why the world needs a weaker dollar
Kathleen Brooks is research director at forex.com. The opinions expressed are her own.
Ever since the last Federal Reserve meeting when the prospect of further policy stimulus for the US gripped the market, dollar weakness has been the dominant theme in FX. The Fed action is considered in some quarters as a backdoor form of currency devaluation, and there has been talk of a global “currency war” as a result.
What is the extent of Ireland’s crisis?
- Kathleen Brooks is research director at forex.com. The opinions expressed are her own. -
The euro’s resilience in the third quarter has been astonishing. Since reaching a low against the dollar in June, the single currency has appreciated by an impressive 14 percent. This has coincided with the Irish financial crisis reaching boiling point, culminating in the announcement on Thursday by the Irish authorities of the final bill for winding down Anglo Irish Bank.
A history lesson for lenders
-Laurence Copeland is a professor of finance at Cardiff University Business School. The opinions expressed are his own.-
Anyone looking for a broader perspective on the events of the last three years could hardly do better than choose for bedtime reading “This Time is Different” by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff.
UK election boils down to one issue for markets
- Jane Foley is research director at Forex.com. The opinions expressed are her own. -
Whether the financial markets will view the outcome of the UK general election as a positive or negative depends almost entirely on one issue: the budget deficit.
