Can the euro dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency? The recent strength in the buck suggests otherwise, but a working paper from two professors say the unthinkable could in time become thinkable if two conditions are met. For the details, take a look at the latest addition to the CS Research Room.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
WHAT’S UP WITH GOLD?
Gold is money, say the metal’s fans. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it has a life of its own. Or does it?
THE KINGDOM OF HOPE
Saudi Arabia, home to the world’s greatest proven reserves of oil, claims it can double its current production. No mean feat, considering that the roughly 11 million-barrels a day (b/d) that it claims it currently pumps is just about the highest in the desert kingdom’s history. History, in other words, offers no guide to the future on this matter, according to authorities who oversee those reserves. As such, elevating Saudi production to 23 million b/d in the years ahead is well within the country’s capacity, according to Abdallah S. Jum’ah, president and chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the planet’s biggest oil company, albeit one run by a government.
DEFLATION, JOE SIXPACK, AND THE GOVERNMENT’S PRINTING PRESS
Forget about inflation, writes Ed Yardeni today in a note to clients. “The next mood swing among investors is likely to be increasing concerns about deflation,” writes the chief investment strategist of Oak Associates. BCA Research made a similar point on Tuesday, advising that in 2005 “inflation will surprise on the downside.” As a result, “The obvious investment implication is to buy bonds.”
MISSING IN ACTION
Inflation, Milton Friedman first counseled all those years ago, is a monetary phenomenon. But in the here and now, inflation suddenly seems to be something less than threatening.
TALKING TOUGH, TALKING TURKEY, AND JUST PLAIN TALKING
The sound of desperation is in the air these days regarding the matter of crude oil. Or is that merely the squealing that comes whenever reality is accepted at face value?
HEALTH PROBLEMS
The OECD released a new study on trends in pharmaceutical spending in the developed economies, telling us what we already knew: expenditures on drugs have taken wing.
MARKET LOGIC
Deciphering the collective mind of the bond market is one of the more challenging tasks in the 21st century, right up there with trying to cure cancer and deciding if the bull-market run in Google’s stock is the Internet bubble reincarnated.
RESEARCH ROOM UPDATE
John Hussman, manager of the Hussman Strategic Growth Fund, weighs the odds of what some say is an approaching recession. He lays out his case in a new essay published earlier this week, and now noted in the CS Research Room.
MONETARY PORNOGRAPHY
Among the various definitions of “neutral” found in the Oxford English Dictionary, one informs: “occupying a middle position with regard to two extremes.”