TMFAleph1 (94.05)

Macro Roundup

February 14, 2012 – Comments (0) | RELATED TICKERS: FXY , EWJ , TLT

Note: I'm afraid all the links I've included today, barring the Bloomberg article, require a subscription. If you really want to read the article, it may be possible to view it by searching for the title with Google.

Being Ben Bernanke. An interesting paper which examines why Bernanke has acted timidly on monetary policy compared to the policy measures he advocated as an academic. The upshot? Groupthink and Bernanke's shy personality.

Why no EU plan for default or exit? (FT): Where I learn that the U.S. government has a contingency plan for funding itself after a nuclear  war: A 20% national sales tax.

Kicking the 罐 down the road: China tells banks to roll over loans (FT)

The BOJ's 10 trillion yen Valentine's day present. Japan's central bank is increasing its asset purchase program by 10 trillion yen -- the increase will go towards buying up JGBs, Bloomberg reports. The BOJ also set an explicit target for inflation of 1%, a figure that hasn't been a achieved since 1997. These new measures come on the heels of Sunday's headline, Japan's GDP shrinks in fourth quarter (FT). Japan's nominal GDP is lower today than it was in 1992.