Tag Archives: France

The Game is Up for the Commodity Super-Cycle as the Yo-Yo Years Begin

If a blizzard of awful Chinese economic data isn’t enough to convince you that China is heading into a deflationary slump and the commodity “super-cycle” is coming to an end, then the deepening crisis in the euro-zone should be. That’s because not only will a massive reduction in foreign lending by European banks hurt investment in emerging markets, but supplier economies will be hit disproportionately, as they were post-Lehman.
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To Win the Election, Obama and Romney Must Promise to Break Up the Big Banks

Campaigning for a break-up of the big banks has gone mainstream. If Obama is to win the election, he will have to stand up for the middle class, which is fed up with the unfairness of the present economic system. This means he will have to tackle the concentration of bank power that continues to threaten economic stability. For while the overarching purpose of the Dodd–Frank reforms was to end Too-Big-Too-Fail, it may actually be increasing banking industry concentration and preventing the economic recovery.
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Germany’s Approaching Götterdämmerung

Germany has been viewed as a safe haven by investors, until now. After all, its export sector has been booming. But investors are beginning to bet against Germany and its manufacturing firms, as a break-up of the euro-zone creeps ever closer. This is because the cost of failure for Germany is growing fast, and the Bundesbank may be trying to force the government’s hand before it digs itself a deeper hole.
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Flying on the Third World’s Empty Stomach

In the crosshairs of the world’s conscience, biofuels are under fire. Converting ever more farmland to fuel rather than food production is causing great suffering in the developing world - which is why the World Bank, the WTO, and other international agencies have teamed up to argue that the use of ethanol to ‘save’ the planet should be curbed. So the airlines’ desire to increase the use of aviation biofuels couldn’t be more badly timed.
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The IMF Is Turning Into A Monster

It’s been apparent for some time that the IMF is no longer an independent institution but an arm of the European financial elites. With Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the helm when the financial crisis hit, Germany and France have cynically been able to use the IMF for their own ends, dropping ever larger sums into the EU with ever fewer conditions, to protect German and French banks that have huge exposures to the PIIGS. Angering the very same Asian countries that were dictated to by the IMF in 1997, and who are now being asked to pay the bills, and stretching US patience to the limit, it is all likely to end in tears.
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EU To Follow US Lead on Commodity Speculation

More bad news for commodity ETFs. The E.U. could follow U.S plans to tame speculative activity, which has been blamed for record food and energy prices in 2008, if France’s call for common action to regulate volatile commodities markets are adopted
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What A Wicked Game to Play: The Truth Germany Conspires to Hide

Germany’s politicians are up to their necks in fraudulently covering up the true state of their banking system. Getting serious about cleaning up their banks would mean admitting the financial crisis was not all the fault of Anglo Saxon bankers. The price that Germany and Europe as a whole pays for this disingenuousness is likely to be another full-blown banking crisis. Only this time it will be Chancellor Angela Merkel and her colleagues that end up being cast as the villains.
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