Have a read of this brilliant opinion piece in the new york times today. The analysis is spot on and clearly shows the decisiveness and breathtaking speed that our government has moved to stem the rot.   Has Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, saved the world financial system? O.K., the question is premature — we still don’t know the exact shape of the planned financial ...

On the second day of five-day tour ahead of the G20 summit, prime minister denies lack of consensus over dealing with the global financial crisis Gordon Brown today told the cream of New York's financial community that they must change their ways if the world is to emerge unscathed from the global financial crisis. At a breakfast meeting at New York's Plaza hotel, the prime minister offe...

In order to try and stop Israel from doing what it needs to do for survival by preventing Iran from obtaining nukes, the Obama administration announces new sanctions against Iranian financial institutions! The response to this brand of US foreign policy used as an attempt to combat an Islamist regime bent on the total destruction of Israel can be accomplished using these four article headlines: Al...

Gordon Brown today insisted the world economy would double in size over the next 20 years as he argued for the need for a global fiscal and monetary stimulus. In a speech on financial crisis at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, the prime minister called for a coordinated approach as countries moved from high to low inflation. Brown said monetary policy had to be made to work to "best e...

Guido can't resist and is now actively trading once again in financial markets, attracted by the blood on the streets of New York and London. The approach is old fashioned, none of that quantitative analysis using super-computers that you need to lose billions. Just two or three positions on the go at any one time, mainly restricted to financial futures, foreign exchange and commodities rather tha...

New York state may have to borrow to smooth a path back to financial health over the next few years, its lieutenant governor said, highlighting the severity of the fiscal trouble facing US states in the wake of the financial crisis and economic recession

In most discussions about what would happen following a strike on Iran it is taken as a given that the Iranians would close the Straits of Hormuz, through which 90 percent of Persian Gulf oil exports pass. The thinking goes that this would lead to a huge spike in world oil prices. But an interesting article in the new issue of Foreign Policy argues that it would be far harder for Iran to close the...

James J. Carafano says managing the bureaucracy will be first test of Obama's foreign policy. Jeremy Leggett says the world is dangerously close to reaching peak oil. The Financial Times warns that Japan's economy is trapped in mediocrity. Bob McKee thinks the big loser in Thailand's unrest is the economy. Larry Derfner suggests using U.S. aid money to buy out settlers in Israel. Fo...

The financial cost of the Vietnam War was $133 billion, while the financial cost of the 1991 Gulf War was $127billion. The financial cost for the 2nd Iraq war reached approximately $450 billion; so far the financial cost for the Afghanistan war soars to $2.5 billion. If the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda wanted to bankrupt the west two suicide planes crashing into the twin towers in New York was ...

Very smart article by Niall Ferguson on the lessons to be drawn from the financial crisis. As one would expect, many of the wrong lessons have been learned by policymakers. As he says, the 1970s was a period of relatively heavy financial regulation and state controls over part of the banking system, and yet it was a grim period economically (unless you happened to be an OPEC oil producer). He also...