US Debt Ceiling - one saga finishes another begins

The US deficit or the growth of it has been a problem that has been kicking around for so long now, that it shouldn't come as any surprise to hear that the United States of America is bankrupt. Nevertheless, at the eleventh hour the entire world seems preoccupied watching the US senate debate whether it should raise the debt ceiling or not. We all know in the end that the ceiling will go up and everything will go back to normal, yes?

Caveat Emptor Basel III Conferences and ERM

Caveat Emptor : Basel III Conferences and Enterprise Risk, yes the two are being pushed together.

I find it quite disturbing that there is a whole swag of supposed Operational Risk experts out there from the United States to Australia who are flogging Operational Risk to death.

The USD is dead ...

Last week we discussed the state of the USD and the very real potential for a rethink of the world currency for settlement. This week our argument only becomes stronger as the United States has been put on review by the rating agencies. It may have taken the agencies a while to come to this conclusion (tongue in cheek) but it didn't take the market long to react. The outcome in the currency markets hasn't been favorable to say the least.

This article is a short review of where we are heading but no secrets, I would say that direction doesn't have a bright future as it stands.

EUR/USD Parallax Error

A new monetary system has been debated by many an economist for some time however, now that the big central banks are starting to think about alternatives, we have to question whether we are on the brink of redesigning the world of floating currencies beyond Bretton Woods failure? 

This article was stimulated by Mervyn King's speech from the Bank of England although momentum has been gathering around the topic of rethinking the role of the US dollar for a while. 

How real could this be?

The FSA drops the S

In a sanctimonious move the 'S' is to come out of the FSA and it is to be replaced with the 'C'.  Yes it is going to happen. 

What was once the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom is to become the Financial Conduct Authority.  Believe it or not there is nothing "prudential" about it, that responsibility lies with the minister.