Currencies trade in a tight range…  Another new plan to help homeowners…  RBNZ and Riksbank slash interest rates! The Governorator speaks!… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! It’s going to be a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday in Europe for sure, given the Central Banks of England and the Eurozone are meeting and will probably cut interest rates to levels that haven’t been seen in a while! The automakers are in deep dookie folks, according to them, and are in need of funds / bailout money right now! The head of Ford believes his company can withstand the recession, but fears for GM and Chrysler… The UAW has made some concessions to help the automakers, but it could be a case of too little, too late…

Well… Another day of doldrums in the currencies, with the bias, what little there is, to buy dollars. The stock jockeys received some manna from heaven yesterday when

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Global stocks decline as gloomy economic news flow resumes… Euro zone services activity falls to a fresh record low… Central banks expected to cut rates aggressively… MSCI World stock index down 0.4 percent

A tentative rebound in global stocks spluttered on Wednesday while euro zone government bond yields hit a three-year low as gloomy economic news highlighted the case for more aggressive interest rate cuts in Europe this week.

The euro stayed on the backfoot and oil held near a 3-1/2 year low a day before the European Central Bank, Bank of England and Sweden’s Riksbank are all widely expected to cut borrowing costs.

Supporting those expectations, economic reports on Wednesday showed the euro zone’s services economy fell deeper into recession in November than initially thought and inflationary pressures eased.

“This is a horrible survey across the board, showing that the euro zone service sector is being hit ever harder

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Once again, I am flattering an entry with a picture taking here in Switzerland where I am currently entertaining courses at HEC Lausance. As you can see, it is a beautiful place and also, as it were, very interesting with respect to tail fume patterns from the enormous amount of airplanes moving back and forth over le Lac Léman (middle of Europe remember!). Posting is slim I know, but so unfortunately is time; I can assure that it is not out of lack of enthusiasm to write and opinion on current events.

Moving on to the topic du jour it is interesting to observe wow fast things sometimes change. We need not go back more than 5-6 months to observe how hawkish central banks across the economic edifice were busy scrambling to raise rates in order to quell inflationary pressures. Most notably, the

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Bernanke gets help opening the spigot... Euro and Pound rally... Yen to continue to benefit from carry reversals... Aussie $ rallies... And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Gloom, Boom & Doom report editor Marc Faber last week cast doubt on the effectiveness of the coordinated interest-rate cuts by international central banks. He said "artificially low interest rates'' were the main cause of the credit-market turmoil in the first place. Mr. Market may have different ideas. Stocks are way up today.

The Federal Reserve, in a globally coordinated effort that also saw interest rates cut by the Bank of England, Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank and Sweden’s Riksbank, cut the U.S. federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1-1/2 percent.

While not part of the globally coordinated action announced this morning, China also cut interest rates, with today’s cut being the second time in just three weeks that it did so. China’s key benchmark interest rate now stands at 6.93%.

With the global economy in a downward spiral and stocks around the world in a free fall, the Federal Reserve undertook this action hoping it can help slow the fast growing economic malaise.

According to the Federal Reserve, “the Committee took this action in light of evidence pointing to a weakening of economic activity and a reduction in inflationary pressures. Incoming economic data suggest that the pace of economic activity has

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The Federal Reserve, in a globally coordinated effort that also saw interest rates cut by the Bank of England, Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank and Sweden’s Riksbank, cut the U.S. federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1-1/2 percent.

While not part of the globally coordinated action announced this morning, China also cut interest rates, with today’s cut being the second time in just three weeks that it did so. China’s key benchmark interest rate now stands at 6.93%.

With the global economy in a downward spiral and stocks around the world in a free fall, the Federal Reserve undertook this action hoping it can help slow the fast growing economic malaise.

According to the Federal Reserve, “the Committee took this action in light of evidence pointing to a weakening of economic activity and a reduction in inflationary pressures. Incoming economic data suggest that the pace of economic activity has

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Needless to say that yours truly is finding it rather difficult to sit at the library doing advanced statistical derivations and proofs on a day where global central banks decided to collectively pull out the big sledge hammer in the continuing effort to quell the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

 The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and four other central banks lowered interest rates in an unprecedented coordinated effort to ease the economic effects of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and Sweden's Riksbank each cut their benchmark rates by half a percentage point. The Bank of Japan, which didn't participate in the move, said it supported the action. Switzerland also took part. Separately, China's central bank lowered its key one-year lending rate by 0.27 percentage point.

Today's decision follows a global meltdown that sent U.S. stock indexes heading for

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Update added below (03.08.2008): New links and further discussion on this can be found in the update below. It really seems as if more than one eye is turning to the Baltics at the moment THE weather deities are extraordinarily generous at the moment here in Copenhagen and being cooped up in a 17m2 studio does not exactly inspire to being a good protestant. However, financial markets and news streams are serving up a nice batch of data points and being the wonk I am, I am keeping tap; even if the beaches of Zealand have (and will be) frequented more than a couple of times. Last time I had the Baltics under the spotlight I asked two overall questions. The first dealt with the extent to which the Baltics had entered a recession in the beginning of ...

By Claus Vistesen Copenhagen

Last time I had the Baltics under the spotlight I asked two overall questions. The first dealt with the extent to which the Baltics had entered a recession in the beginning of 2008 and the second question surrounded the risk of the Baltic pegs to the Euro. This time around and with the recent Q2 GDP release from Lithuania it would be nice to revisit the first of these questions. And with the market focus looking to shift from inflation to growth the second question is likely to become in vogue once again.

As the Q1 GDP numbers came in for the Baltics I concluded that it was very likely that the region had entered a recession. In light of the proverbial definition of a recession as a consecutive quarter contraction it seems clear the Lithuania managed to smartly skirt the recession

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