Category Archives: macroeconomic factors

$GS screenshot on the most important economies for global markets.

Commodities volatility

Social unrest and revolt during the Arab spring led to a restricted N African supply of crude. Japan’s catastrophic quake halted her industrial production lines. These events created unprecedented volatility in the raw commodities industry, the volatility is set to continue through 2012 as more austere fiscal measures are adopted.

Statistics in Greece is a combat sport

Elstat is Greece’s new independent statistics agency. Elstat has been commissioned by the European Commission to “clean up” the statistics, after decades of corruption and inadequacy by the Greek finance ministry. Yet, Elstat is now facing opposition in the form of an official criminal investigation by the Greek government for “inflating the scale of theContinue reading “Statistics in Greece is a combat sport”

Weakest Performing Financials (domestic & foreign)

No. Ticker % Change Industry 1 MKTG -20.71 FINANCIAL 2 ING -11.96 FINANCIAL 3 HMPR -10.18 FINANCIAL 4 AEG -8.82 FINANCIAL 5 DB -8.78 FINANCIAL 6 BCS -8.55 FINANCIAL 7 DGIT -8.53 FINANCIAL 8 RDN -8.53 FINANCIAL 9 OCN -8.25 FINANCIAL 10 HBC -8.04 FINANCIAL 11 CS -8.03 FINANCIAL 12 PNSN -7.76 FINANCIAL 13 LMLPContinue reading “Weakest Performing Financials (domestic & foreign)”

Read this Article America, 11m borrowers “under water”

30m mortgage holders out of 55m are paying above market interest rates… 1% over the average for a new 30 year… This is quoted from the article: “I answered an ad in 1995 that I thought was for a job related to “security” (as in security guard) but was in fact related to “securities.” That’sContinue reading “Read this Article America, 11m borrowers “under water””

Managing Economic Crises, Don’t Forget the Impact of Natural Disaster

The human cost to natural disasters like the one in Turkey weeks ago include injuries and temporary and permanent disabilities, temporary and permanent displacement of people, increased poverty and disease, and psychological scars. In addition Economic costs, based largely on direct infrastructure or losses of fixed capital and inventory, are also underestimated. Many indirect effectsContinue reading “Managing Economic Crises, Don’t Forget the Impact of Natural Disaster”

Crisis of Confidence

At this point it really doesn’t matter which way the crisis in Greece goes. The worlds confidence has fallen as bond markets have shown more alarm and the GIIPS have been forced a bailout. Government debt situations and the banking industry and heavily linked GLOBALLY, and more is likely to come (MF GLOBAL). The fallContinue reading “Crisis of Confidence”

“This is a question of whether we remain in the euro zone. This is very clear. It’s clear to everyone” – Papandreou

Ok, here is the itinerary: The ECB is meeting on November 3rd. The G20 is meeting on November 3-4, The Papandreou is attending on the 2nd day. A Eurogroup meeting will follow on November 7th, followed by an EU Ecofin meeting on November 8. The Troika was meant to disburse the sixth tranche of theContinue reading ““This is a question of whether we remain in the euro zone. This is very clear. It’s clear to everyone” – Papandreou”

Ex-Ikos chair Coward launches illegal hedge fund.

Martin Coward, co-founder of Ikos Financial and estranged husband of Elena Ambrosiadou, is preparing to launch his own hedge fund. The FT reports the fund will be activated next year, using the same state of the art proprietary technology to benefit from high frequency trading that has lead to Ikos’s success. Although Coward is theContinue reading “Ex-Ikos chair Coward launches illegal hedge fund.”