RealTerms

Setting a poor standard

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

How seriously should you take ratings agencies such as Moody�s and Standard & Poor�s? One answer is �very�, since that is how governments and the media seem to treat them on the whole. Markets will likely react too, though exactly how and when is not as predictable. Broadly speaking, if the agencies downgrade you, media headlines will scream, policymakers could react. If they upgrade you, markets will see you as a safe bet for a big cheap loan.

Time to complete the EU banking market

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The thing about this crisis is that people talk about fiscal policy this and quantitative easing�that, but until the banks are fixed, the cause of the crisis will remain broken. And the banks won't be fixed until governments fix them.

Recovery? What recovery?

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Lots of people have just recently been talking as though the recovery in the US had been going on for two years. Not that anyone was celebrating, what with unemployment so high. Even so, I have no idea where that notion of recovery came from or what data it was based on, yet international organisations and other institutions seemed to have made up their minds. And many journalists and economic commentators seemed happy with that and took their cue from a few official press releases. In reality, the economy in the western world has been in fairly bad shape at least since Lehman's fall in�2008, and probably earlier than that.�

Soc Gen's travails

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Are rating agencies shooting markets in the foot?

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Take a look at this chart listing the credit ratings by the main ratings agencies, including Standard & Poor's latest downgrade of the US to AA+ from AAA. Is S&P really saying that the US is a bigger sovereign risk than, say, the UK, and about the same as Belgium, where there is no government at all? (Incredibly, unlike the US, S&P does not have Belgium on�their "observation" list, but as a safe AA+.)

Island for sale

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Ireland: More on the facts

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

David, I remember your public speaking not that long back, just before the crisis finally broke: you were sure there�d be a reckoning for all the private Irish debt v German savings, you sensed there was trouble ahead, but you were unsure about when. Others had similar fears, you voiced yours clearly, but it was not a forecast as such, and you occasionally expressed doubt, given what seemed like gravity-defying property prices. Your fears were based on something more sophisticated than �what goes up must come down�, though not sure if you saw the tsunami building in the US. Maybe you did.

Brian Lenihan, RIP

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Ex-finance minister Brian Lenihan's death (52) is tragic in a Shakespearian way. Cancer, but also stress, were causes, but more than that, he paid a heavy price for his position. For Brian became the mob's scapegoat for the Irish financial crisis, yet he had little to do with the years of bank lending that got the country into its current mess.

Photo greats

Sun, 08 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

A photo auction of some of the great photographers of the 20th century took place in Paris on Saturday 2 May 2011 , with original one-use only prints by the likes of Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange,�the Capas,�Robert Frank and more,�all selling.

DSK: innocent or guilty?

Sat, 21 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The Economist, for all its high brow, does not really consider the African plaintiff either, but trots out the same clich�s I've read before. Nor does this piece ask if DSK is innocent or guilty? So very few, if any, articles have probed that question with any objectivity. It's just another bash-France piece from The Pret-�-Manger-ville Tattler. We're used to that here. Read it here if you like.