L'Information est d'Or

Willem Buiter of the Financial Times seems to beleive so in the following article: Time for the ECB to get serious about the overvalued Euro Also an interesting question is should the ECB intervene on the FX market? What's sure is that no other Central Bank has any incentive to devalue the Euro.

From Yoram Bauman , sooo funny (and true :)

The World Economic Forum (WEF) released a new ranking of the most trade-friendly economies. Those are the countries that should benefit most from a World recovery when it occurs. The top ten is composed of financial centres - of which openess is a raison d'être - like Singapour or Hong Kong and North European countries - which have long had a tradition of trade - like Danemark or Sweden. It is interesting to note that 7 out of 10 most trade-friendly economies are European. It is good news for Europe. Or could it be a natural bias from an institution based in Europe (Geneva)? I have noticed with a lot of amusement that when the Indian Economic Times covered the story, they have put a picture of Russia (Moscow I think) to present Norway :) http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshowpics/4750684.cms The full ranking is the following: 1. Singapore 2. Hong Kong 3. Switzerland 4. Danemark 5. Sweden 6. Canada 7. Norway 8. Finland 9. Austria 10. Netherlands

This is a historic decision by the Central Bank of Australia. They decided today to increase their policy rate from 3% to 3.25%. Since the begining of the financial crisis, this is the first bank to make such a move. They will likely be followed by other Central Banks, although maybe with a significant delay. This decision is proof that what used to be the biggest risk - deflation - is now beaten and we can start looking forward. The massive monitary response (lowering of interest rates, quantitative easing and stimulus packages) has worked but we now need to start looking at how to manage the adverse consequences: a monetary policy too accomodating and huge debt. It will be a fine and difficult tuning for central bankers to stop monetary easing at or after there are clear signs of recovery and impending inflation. Some economists, like Paul Stiglitz beleive that we are not out of the woods yet. They invoke the fact that: - unemployement is big and rising, putting a drag

Free is a fantastic success story, one of my favourite in business. Their model is based on innovation in products and simplicity in marketing. http://m.lesechos.fr/high-tech/020157066642.htm