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The lack of details behind the European Union's debt plan leads one to wonder if the pendulum swung from "not as bad" to "not as good" as it seems as if execution risk remains high. Given that the risk on dealer balance sheets is now down to levels not seen since 2003, volatility is likely to persist as very little volume is required to move market...

The ECB will eventually end up with a more open-ended commitment to buy peripheral European debt. However, it will probably take further turmoil to achieve this. Once the ECB acts as lender of last resort, its balance sheet expands and the quality of its balance sheet deteriorates, leading to a fall in the euro. The weaker euro, in turn, makes QE3 ...

Unresolved fiscal issues in the United States and the European crisis continue to weigh on the capital markets. However, the author believes the United States should begin to regain economic traction in 2012 and that less developed markets will continue to exhibit relatively strong growth.

European Union leaders have at long last reached some agreement on a blueprint to increase the firepower of the European Financial Stability Facility and recapitalize Europe's banks. Although details are still very sketchy, there are grounds for fearing this may only be one more stepping stone on the way to solving the crisis.

More than a year since the difficulties began, the markets are again stressing over the possibility of a financial meltdown. Global economic growth is sputtering, and debt levels of peripheral European nations remain dangerously high. Many investors are left wondering if, like Sisyphus, we are doomed to an eternity of frustration.

Global wealth has increased to $231 trillion from $195 trillion in 2010, led by growing wealth in South Africa, India, Australia, Chile, and Singapore. This study of world wealth analyzes trends across nations and over time, including the life cycle link between wealth and age, household wealth, and prospects for personal wealth.

Europe has entered a new stage of the debt crisis, as funding stress in the banking sector has risen to extremes. The bond spreads of Belgium, Austria and France have risen to 290, 150 and 155bps respectively, record highs and 5 to 6 standard deviations above norm. The current trends may be unsustainable if left unchecked for more than a few weeks.

As shown by local bans in the US and Canada, national moratoriums in France and Bulgaria, and tighter regulation in Australia and the UK, the global anti-fracking movement has mounted an effective campaign against the extraction of unconventional gas through hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’). Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry has largely failed t...

The phrase is often heard that financial markets do not like uncertainty. The uncertainty surrounding the November elections in the U.S. is behind us. However, much uncertainty remains. The main sources of that uncertainty include the fiscal cliff, the need to increase the federal debt ceiling, the absolute level of the federal debt, and the regula...

President Obama will head into his second term in January facing a divided Congress that looks a lot like the Congress of the last two years of his first term – with the Democrats controlling the Senate and conservative Republicans solidly controlling the House of Representatives. With the country facing immense and immediate fiscal challenges that...

For well over a year now, investors have dreaded the US’s looming “fiscal cliff”—the combination of federal budget cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2013. Should America’s gridlocked Congress not agree on a work around, some economists, credit ratings agencies and government forecasters believe the US economy could slow ...

The world’s largest developed economies continue to experience modest and volatile growth as they work off excess debt accumulated over the previous decades. Global growth is unlikely to come in a straight line, due to the instability caused by excess debt and the inconsistency and cyclicality of governmental policy response. In fact, in the near-t...

While political pundits work overtime to draw profound conclusions from Tuesday’s election results, the implications for the financial markets seem less than momentous. Election night was clearly much better for Democrats than Republicans, but this was a status quo outcome. Until the 2014 mid-term elections, the players will be President Obama, a G...

Pension plan sponsors face significant challenges.  Retirement obligations continue to increase, and the two major equity market set-backs in 2000 and 2008 have produced widening funding gaps.  So what does the future hold?  Will their plans be able to reliably achieve their stated return objectives?  Unfortunately for plans relying solely on tradi...

This paper looks at the possibility of an upturn in housing and the headwinds most likely to impede a robust recovery.