Marcus Ashworth

Europe Has a Weak Dollar Problem

How much is too much of a good thing? The euro has strengthened 5% versus the dollar this year — a fair reflection of the European Union’s better handling of the coronavirus, not least its historic decision to create a pandemic rescue fund that will involve fiscal transfers from the wealthy north…

Germany's Bund May Be About to Lose Its Crown

There’s a new kid in debt town, with the closest thing so far to a true “euro bond” about to be sold in prodigious size to pay for the European Union’s new 750 billion-euro ($869 billion) pandemic fund. It will represent a challenge to Europe’s undisputed credit-market champion: the German bund. …

Pound Slide More About Brexit Than the Economy

The pound has set a new post-Brexit referendum low against the euro and is tantalizingly close to doing the same against the dollar. This slide says more about the increasing likelihood of a no-deal departure than the state of the UK economy. Figures released on Friday showed gross domestic…

A US-China Currency War Would Do Some Serious Damage

It didn’t take long for the Donald Trump tweet. That you can get more than 7 Chinese yuan to the dollar for the first time since 2008 was always going to be a red rag to the White House bull in the escalating economic battle between Washington and China. The president tweeted on Monday morning –…

The Turkish Lira and Political Crises

Turkey’s central bank is again trying to shore up the lira. Its latest effort is unlikely to ease the pain for the worst-performing currency in emerging markets this quarter. On Thursday, the monetary authority attempted to raise interest rates by the backdoor, suspending its one-week repo…

US Yields Set to Leave Europe’s in the Rearview Mirror

Where the US leads, the world will follow. That has been the case in the bond market for the past month as American yields have climbed steadily. But Europe is unlikely to follow the leader much further if U.S. Treasuries move up to a higher yield range; there’s simply not enough high-quality…

Turkey Missed Its Chance to Stop This Emergency

At least Turkey’s central bank can spot an economic crisis. But it’s hard to believe that officials are going to take serious action to stop it. Consumer price inflation accelerated to the fastest rate in 15 years, at 17.9 percent, data on Monday showed. And this does not look to be the top of…

Is Turkey Becoming Uninvestable?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unfortunately is a man of his word. He promised to take greater control of monetary policy during the election campaign, and he has wasted no time in doing so. He has snipped the last threads in Turkey’s safety net — and he has made his nation all but…