According to Andrew Samwick, the world’s central banks are too big to behave rashly. As he puts it: "We’re too big an economy, and our creditors’ portfolio holdings are simply too large for them to …

Jesse Eisinger has a nice Long and Short column exploring CNOOC’s bid for Unocal in the Wall Street Journal. I liked this quote from Lehman’s Ethan Harris:The Cnooc bid "strikes people that we really…

I think it is fair to say that I see the world - and Iraq's economy -- very differently than Patrick Clawson.  Clawson argues in the New Republic that Iraq currently is financing most of its own reco…

with money the Treasury borrows from China?  Ok, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia ... The answer so far has been yes.   The Pentagon - or at least influential voices in the Pentagon - want to discoura…

Oil is once again quite strong.    Last summers’ rally was driven in part by a rise the geopolitical risk premium.   This summers’ rally seems a product of both strong global growth and relatively re…