Summing up on Last Week's Events ...

Well, as you may have noticed Alpha.Sources is not running on all cylinders at the moment with respect to post quantity at least although do note my last post on the global economy since it pretty well sums up views (although I have not really yet decided whether I think BWII will in fact dissipate). The reason for the standstill as I have hinted before is that December is exam month in Copenhagen (for me anyway) and in this way I am rather tied down at the moment in preparation. However, the world slowly and steadily moves on outside the walls of the Copenhagen Business School and as such last week saw some rather interesting events. First of all we saw two reductions in interest rates from the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England where the former was somewhat more 'unexpected' than the latter. Yet, and in tune with my traditional locus of analysis here at this space also the ECB convened to set interest rates where the result also quite expectedly was a holding operation (Q&A here). Normally, I would follow up with an analysis but not this time since time is rather short at my end. However, I have my bases covered and in this way I suggest that you go over to GEM where Edward has all the relevant charts, comments and clues as to what in fact is going on. You shouldn't allow yourself to miss the recent slew of comments from the always sharp commenters over at MS' GEF Eric Chaney and Elga Bartsch either. Elga and Eric consequently chime in on the recent events at the ECB and the outlook on the Eurozone economy.

Finally we have Japan where I have also been busy throughout the year (don't worry, end of the year summary will come) in my analysis. Recently, I have asked two relatively intertwined questions with respect to Japan albeit in somewhat of a reverse chronological order. Back in the beginning of September I asked whether Japan was headed for a recession and recently as we entered November I simply asked where Japan in fact was heading. With Friday's downward revision of the otherwise very impressive Q3 GDP figures I am closer to a final answer on the question above and as such I really do feel that Japan may well be flirting with a recession (i.e. negative growth rates), today's machinery orders figures notwithstanding,  going forward which makes the recent return into inflation something of a false comfort I fear since it was above and beyond all about inflation measuring and thus how headline inflation almost exclusive was the source.   

So, there you have it ... a short summary of the past week's events in my twisted world of economic punditry and analysis at least.