Philippe Herlin

This anemic growth, this ever-delayed recovery and this QE tapering should normally be worrisome for the stock market, but things are staying put for now. How is that?

We often talk in these pages about the difficult situation facing Europe’s southern countries, but the financial crisis is also affecting countries that are considered sound and that have a good reputation. This is the case with Austria, facing difficulties with its banking sector.

Mario Draghi came out with several announcements on June 5 which have been very well received by pundits. These measures are supposed to encourage banks to make loans to businesses and, thus, help in sustaining the recovery. Let’s see what these measures really entail.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) just published a statistical study on the amount of derivatives worldwide at the end of 2013, and they reach the astronomical amount of $710 Trillions ($710,000,000,000,000).

There always is this media noise, constantly repeating itself, about optimistic growth predictions, but only real results should count, and they are not good at all.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Germany’s central bank would accept a move by the ECB in June if the outlook on inflation warrants it. The Buba now is siding with the general assumption that we have to fight deflation risks by turning on the printing press.

So what’s new in the States? The recovery... which needs more and more time to become a reality. Judge by yourself : Growth in the first quarter plummeted to a meager 0.1%. The explanation from official sources? Snow...

These last few days, the media would have us believe that Greece is doing better, that the country is on its way back up, and two irrefutable proofs are brought in for that demonstration : Greece is now experiencing a primary budgetary surplus, and it has regained access to financial markets. Let...

By constantly playing with words and abusing its people, the french government may face some violent consequences. The fall may be more brutal. France is the pivot country between Europe’s south and north, and a crisis surrounding the trust on its debt would spread to all of the Eurozone...

IMF says the number of non-performing loans on the european banks’ balance sheets has doubled since 2009, going from 400 to 800 billion euros.

We are aware of the problems of « Too Big to Fail » banks : They are so big that, if they were to fail, it would cause such economic havoc that they can rest assured to be bailed out by the State. And they’re taking advantage of this situation by taking on even more risk!

Why is deflation depicted as an absolute horror? Journalists, economists, politicians and central bank chairmen are all warning us against a general and durable price deflation, equating it to the Apocalypse, as they explain it. This unanimity is very troubling, so let’s stay on the alert.

Up until now, Japan was the exception among Asian countries that are hungry for gold (China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia), and even seemed odd, because Japanese people would get rid of their gold, to the point that Japan was showing a negative balance. These days seem like they are over and tha...

The Foreign Exchange (FOREX) manipulation scandal is growing in scope. In 2013 many large banks (Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC) set aside 16.4 billion euros to cover « legal expenses », e.g. the probable amount of fines they will have to pay after their t...

Funny how the Fed and Big Business are not true to their primary function (guarantee the value of the money, invest and increase profits) and would rather manipulate the tools at their disposal, for which they are responsible, that must be used to establish objective measures (dollars, stocks)in...

We’ve said it before... but here we go again : THERE IS NO RECOVERY OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY! There. This « recovery » has been touted these last few months with the mass media repeating it ad nauseam, and « no one should doubt it ». And quarterly growth numbers seemed to...

The Fed has started tapering its QE. From $85 Billion a month, the monetary press slowed down to $75 Billion a month, last month, and then down to $65 Billion a month. Ben Bernanke might have left his successor with a poisoned gift

The specter of a crisis in emerging countries is back. A veritable tsunami is sweeping through their currencies : The argentine peso has lost 20% to the US dollar since the start of the year, the turkish pound has lost 30% over the last twelve months. The mexican peso, the brazilian real and the...

Rates on the debt of Italy and Spain have reached high levels in 2011 and 2012, even 7% at times, a rate considered as « mortal », because it could snowball into quick defaults. But in 2013 and the start of this year, these rates have been around 4%, in the midst of weak volatility. Does that mea...

What kind of game are the banks and the states playing? Here are four news items that should alert anyone still having faith in the european banking system.