The Japanese economy continues to weaken and a recession is now the main consensus. The country’s trade balance, which was long in surplus, is now moving deeper and deeper into deficit and the third quarter numbers almost certainly will show contraction, and these are more than likely to be followed by another set of negative readings for Q4
Japan Edges Towards the Cliff
Posted in Asia, Fiscal Policy, Global Economy, Japan, Monetary Policy on November 2, 2012ECB at the forefront of global central bank QE
Posted in European Economy, Monetary Policy on January 3, 2012
Since early September the ECB’s balance sheet has expanded by 589 billion euros (about 750 billion USD) and the Fed USD swap lines are currently sitting at around 100 billion USD. The second LTRO to be conducted towards the end of February is then very likely to take this number well past 1 trillion USD of liquidity to the European banking system.
