It’s a lot more action on Capital Hill than on Wall Street friday. The stock market slides in to a weak ending with a light headwind from the dollar, as the investors park their portfolios in safe havens. But in Washington it’s full storm around treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and his FED-friends, while senator Ted Kaufman [...]

Ukrainian Railway have defaulted on a Barclays bond. They have another, government guaranteed obligation with Deutsche Bank. If Deutsche Bank accelerates the payment interest it is then not paid, it will count as a government default, according to Moody’s.   “Sovereign debt isn’t a major issue in the market today and was not a main reason that caused this crisis [...]

The U.S. stock market contiued to slide thursday as the dollar strengthen. At Capitol Hill treasury secretary Timothy Geithner is facing tough questions from the senators who begins to loose confidence i Geithner and the Obama-administrations ability to handle the crisis. Ananlysts at Société Générale warns about a global debt collaps. “We also recognise that the [...]

The volume of total identifiable gold demand in the third quarter of 2009 was down 34% on the levels of a year earlier at 800.3 tonnes, equivalent to a 27% decline in $US value terms to $US24.7bn, World Gold Coucil reports. (Article in Norwegian, link to original report in English). Mens prisen på gull har økt fra [...]

While the dollar is slowly depreciating towards zero, and the price of gold, commoditis and stocks has the sky as the limit, Wall Street has become an “El Dorado” for speculative investors. FED chairman Ben Bernanke can’t see any “obvious case that there’s any large misalignments currently in the U.S. financial system.”  And that the [...]

“Think the worst is over? Wrong.” professor Nouriel Roubini writes in his latest commentary. According to Mr. Roubini the U.S. unemployment rate will peak at 11% at the end of 2010, and will remain at high levels for at least 2 years. The damage to the ecomomy will be ”extensive and severe” unless bold policy action [...]

Professor Robert Schiller at Yale University makes some clear statements about the resent signs of economic recovery in an article published in Gulf Times sunday. According to Mr. Schiller the authorities and governments around the world can not claim to have “saved” the world with their policies and measures. They just got lucky, Schiller concludes.   “Where our [...]

The banks’ excess reserves has exceeded USD 1 trillion, records shows. Last time the excess reserves surged like this was between 1929 and 1935. The enormous amount of money might be a potensial threath to the FEDs control over money supply, former Wall Street-trader, derivatives expert and author dr. Espen Gaarder Haug argues in a new blog post.  “To me [...]

Is the Norwegian economy really out of the resession? Is the economy recovering or deteriorating? Are the Norwegians facing “Japanese conditions”, or at risk of catching the “Dutch desease”? And was the Central Banks’ rate hike a big mistake? There seems to be more questions than answers. But it’s pretty clear that anything still can [...]

Vice chairman Jan F. Qvigstad share some interesting thoughts on the central banks transparency policy in this transcript of a speech he held earlier this week. Central Bank of Norway acknowledge the need for greater transparency, but according to Mr. Qvigstad full transarency is not possible. The balance between tranparency and finacial stability is difficult, [...]