Kenneth Rogoff,  the Professor of Economics at Harvard University, is stuck in a time warp where he cannot think out of the box even once. He is telling the central banks that the next recession they will have to resort to negative interest rates and they should prepare now. Despite the fact that negative rates have […]

The biggest conversational topic today was the recent USD bounce, as well as the oil price decline. Japans Nikkei held-in as the nervousness returned, but it was the JPY trading back close to 111 that had people talking. Given the US Retail Sales number was so above expectation the market now assumes the FED are […]

It has taken almost 10 years for the ECB’s controversial government bond purchases to finally reach the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to be reviewed as to their constitutionality. There have always been serious questions whether the PSPP (Public Sector Purchase Program) was compatible with the ban on monetary budgetary funding that has been imposed […]

Despite a better than expected Japanese Q2 GDP (annualised 4%) the Nikkei fell 1% in thin summer trading. The currency probably took most of the blame for this as it weakened back towards 110 as we head to the end of the trading day. One wonders if the flight to safety argument is finally being […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; What you are saying is there is no diplomacy that would work and that the only real player here is regime change and that is in the hands of the North Korean people. So what is your advice to Trump? KE ANSWER: Forget the trying to talk reason or my arsenal is bigger than […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I attended the Paris conference of the BIS when you were the keynote speaker. You delivered a forecast that was probably too far ahead for its time. You said the euro would go through and it would first drop but then peak with deflation in 2008 after the markets crash from 2007. […]

Although Asian core all closed lower it really wasn’t that bad – at least in the Asian cash time zone. The JPY traded above the 110 level as cash rebounded at the close but then saw the late safety rally (US time zone). It was the large cap Hang Seng that appeared nervous in late […]

The US sanctions voted on by Congress against Russia are outrageous and an act of war that history will write as this may have been the line in the sand crossed by the USA to punish Russia for Hillary’s loss. Clearly, the new sanctions have important implications for Europe because they target any company that contributes […]

Only one big topic for Asian markets this morning and unfortunately, not a happy one. The uptick in geo-politics dominated everything today and unsurprisingly saw equities retreat, with a rally in gold and treasuries. The Nikkei fell the most of the cores with a decline of 1.3% and saw a strengthening of its currency down […]

We did not see a clear direction for core Asian indices today as we played between the positive and negative for most of the day. A typical August Tuesday with slow trade, low volume and no direction but we did have economic data to digest. Chinese released Export numbers for July increased by 7.2% whilst […]