Recent Additions to my Blogroll ...

I have three new additions to my blogroll this time around. Two of them are actual blogs and I am adding them because they both look as if they are maintained by devilshly competent writers/scholars and of course because my watchlists have reported me that they have recently added Alpha.Sources to their blogroll. The third one is actually a first on my blog although I guess it does bear some resemblence to my listing of the clever people from Morgan Stanley's Global Economic Forum. Actually, I have to admit that by adding the last link to my blogroll I am struck by a bit of patriotism too. So what and who am I talking about?

First off we have Kosmopolitan written by Andreas in Germany. This is how Andreas presents himself and his blog ...

This blog covers topics related to politics and culture from a (pro-) European perspective with an emphasis on EU affairs, Eastern Europe and international politics……….and everything else the author considers as being interesting and important……….

profile of the author:

Kosmopolit aka Andreas

Locations: Stuttgart, London, Münster, Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, at the moment living and working in Brussels

In terms of post there are many notable entries to choose from but you should in particular not miss this one about the tower of Babel in Europe and the enduring struggle between the languages in terms of what language will remain and/or become dominant as working language in the EU. It should of course not surprise you that the French are the ones most ardently standing their ground.  

Every now and then a little language war breaks out in the EU institutions. Spain lobbies for Spanish to become one of the official working languages (at the moment: English, French and German) because it is one of most spoken languages worldwide. Germany (sometimes together with Austria) claims that German became more popular after the EU Enlargement. Italy, a big and proud country also wants its language to be considered….Usually not much is happening after attempts like that. And normally these lobbying activities are also quite diplomatic…..

Secondly, we have International Political Economy Zone which has only been around on the blog(ck) since February. The author signs himself as Emmanuel and that is the only info there seems to be at this point. I guess he/she is letting the posts speak for themselves, and they certainly do. Don't miss this one for example about the ever so debated question of China's hot potatoe as it has sometimes been referred to or as Emmanuel invokes it; The Trillion Dollar Question.

China has accumulated over a trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserve holdings--the largest pile of reserves ever accumulated by any state--as it has emerged as the workshop to the world and earned a lot of foreign exchange in the process. It has recently made a decision to create an investment company to place these funds in things other than the likes of American or European sovereign debt. Previously, the misleadingly named State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) had sole responsibility for managing this pile. The big question that comes to mind is, will this action cause the dollar to weaken because demand for dollar-denominated instruments like Treasuries may fall? Well, it depends:

Lastly, and this of course now that we stray a bit off the traditional blogroll mark I felt the need to list the analysis feed for the Danish investment bank Saxo Bank on my blogroll. Saxo Bank is very international in its profile so do not worry, everything is in English and in terms of the actual content it seems to be top of the line market commentary and watching. Some of the content might require a 'free membership' but this one from the Chief Investment Officer (those oh so flashy titles :)) Steen Jakobsen about the recent market wobbles does not, and it is good and witty too.

''Well, is it all over? Did the party end before it ever got started?

Hardly, but... there is growing evidence that we will see a dead-cat bounce from here. Credit spreads have all reacted positively in the last few days. The different risk monitors represent the final phase. So what do we do from here?

Well, I took profit on ALL of my positions Monday and then took a day or two off in order to not get involved in the market again, but I think now is the time to get back, reassess the risk and market profile.

(...)

Conclusion

Yes, there is room for further correction higher in stocks. Watch your chart levels for resistance AND GET OUT in time. I am long NASDAQ future

Yes, there is room for upside in fixed income on a dovish Trichet today. This, again, will support stocks.

Yes, there is room for some moves higher in USD/JPY these next few days

Yes, there is room for moves higher in crude, gold and silver higher.

No, it is not over.

No, you can't ignore the warning signals from credit.

Good luck.'

How is that for a forecast :)?

In essence three strong candidates for a slot in your RSS feed reader as well as on your blogroll.

Enjoy reading!