Singapore Monetary Policy Eased After Weaker-Than-Expected GDP Data April 14, 2025 The Monetary Authority of Singapore flattened the slope of the SGD’s target rate following news that GDP in that economy had contracted by 0.8% between 4Q 2024 and last quarter. That bigger-than-expected decline was the first negative GDP movement since a 0.5% drop in…
Temporary Reciprocal Tariff Pause on Tech Lifts Equities But Dollar Continues to Weaken April 14, 2025 (196) The dollar fell overnight by 0.9% against sterling, 0.8% versus the Mexican peso and New Zealand’s currency, 0.6% relative to the Aussie dollar, 0.2% vis-a-vis the loonie, and 0.3% against the Japanese yen and euro. Intra-day lows of…
How Badly Has the United States Been Ripped Off by the Post-WW2 Economic Order? April 13, 2025 The moral basis for President Trump’s punitive tariff policy has been the assertion that the progression of free-trade treaties over the past 80 years have been unevenly practiced, resulting in a huge disadvantage for America’s economy. In a…
Next Week’s Menu: April 12-18, 2025 April 11, 2025 Central Banks: Monetary policy stances will be reviewed in Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Turkey and at the European Central Bank. Reserve Bank of Australia Board minutes and the Bank of Canada quarterly Monetary Policy Report will be published. ECB President Lagarde and Bank of Canada Macklem…
Dollar Slumps to Weakest Level Since Russia Invaded Ukraine in Early 2022 April 11, 2025 The weighted DXY dollar index sank 1.3% overnight, including declines of 1.5% against the Swiss franc, 1.7% versus the euro, 1.3% relative to the yen and 1.4% vis-a-vis New Zealand’s dollar. The greenback’s drop is part of a broader flight…
Filipino Interest Rate Cut April 10, 2025 At the Central Bank of the Philippines, however, the key interest was cut today by 25 basis points to 5.5% following a scheduled review of the monetary stance. This was the fourth 25-bp reduction since last August, and the new rate is a full percentage point below the…
Tariff Confusion, Inflation, Industrial Production, and Continuing Financial Market Volatility April 10, 2025 President Trump’s peek-a-boo tariff policy is putting Lincoln’s warning that you cannot fool all of the people all of the time to a test. Investors got severely whiplashed yesterday afternoon by the 90-day tariff pause. The subsequent sharp rally in U.S. equities…
American Vertigo April 9, 2025 Who as a child didn’t discover the joy of spinning round & round and the ensuing sensation of dizziness? Floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee, President Trump’s style is full of razzle-dazzling action that forces consumers, investors, business planners, news reporters, and other world leaders into a…
Central Bank Rate Cuts in India and News Zealand April 9, 2025 Central bank officials in India and New Zealand, in widely expected moves, cut their key interest rates by 25 basis points today. The Reserve Bank of India‘s unanimously decided repo rate reduction to 6.0% followed a similar cut made at the prior February…
Back to Panic Mode as U.S. Reciprocal Tariffs Take Effect and China Strikes Back April 9, 2025 The U.S. tariff on China is now 104%, and China’s government has answered with an 84% levy on imports of U.S. goods. An editorial in yesterday’s NYT by University of Chicago economics professor Brent Neiman, whose collaborated work…