There were multiple reports about trade talks between U.S. and China on Tuesday, which sent traders scrambling to decipher. Some U.S. officials fear that China is reneging on certain trade concessions, Bloomberg News reported first Tuesday afternoon. People familiar with the talks told Bloomberg that they are concerned China's pushback and stalling discussions could threaten President Donald T... read more

The U.S. national debt has crossed $22 trillion dollars — the highest ever. In the first four months of the 2019 fiscal year (October 2018-January 2019), the federal budget deficit ballooned to $310 billion, up 77% from the same time last year, as revenues fell 2% to $1.1 trillion and spending rose 9% to $1.4 trillion, according to a Treasury department report. That has been a trend building... read more

Argentina’s central bank appears to be willing to do whatever it takes to exorcise last year’s currency crisis, even if it means prolonging a recession and putting the reelection of President Mauricio Macri at risk. The bank has sold a net 190 billion pesos ($4.6 billion) of short-term debt in March, effectively pulling 13.5 percent of the country’s entire monetary base out of circulat... read more

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Sunday the U.S. central bank does “not feel any hurry” to change the level of interest rates again as it watches how a slowing global economy affects local conditions in the United States. Rates are currently “appropriate,” Powell said in a wide-ranging interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes news show in which he called t... read more

The eurozone is beginning to resemble Japan with its low-growth and low-inflation environment, coupled with still very loose monetary policy, according to economists at ING. This raises questions about the European Central Bank's tool kit and firing power. Interest rates haven’t gone up in either the eurozone or Japan since the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Conversely, the Fe... read more

European Union governments unanimously rejected a list of foreign jurisdictions posing higher risks of money laundering, criticizing officials in Brussels for drawing up the document in a flawed manner. The list was presented last month by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, as a measure to protect the financial system from dirty-money risks stemming from outside the bloc.... read more

Sam Zell, a billionaire businessman and philanthropist, believes the wealth redistribution ideas of far-left Democrats, such as freshman firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, won't work because Americans would rather earn success than get handouts. "Everyone in America wants to be rich. Everybody in America wants to succeed," Zell told CNBC on Wednesday. "That's, by the way, what made Ameri... read more

Government regulators should be vigilant about the level, growth and credit quality of corporate debt because those factors could dampen the ability of companies to invest and spend and amplify the severity of any slowdown in economic growth, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said Tuesday. “An elevated level of corporate debt, along with the high level of U.S. government debt, is likely t... read more

The periodic requirement for Congress to vote on raising the debt ceiling has become a reliable piece of political theater. The vote usually follows the passage of a budget by the Congress, and a hike in the debt ceiling rarely gets a green light without some drama. It's a little like a person who orders up a five course dinner and drinks and then threatens not to pay when the bill arrives.... read more

Since the start of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and through subsequent Euro area crises, the EU frameworks for reforming financial services have invariably been anchored to the need for reducing the extent of systemic risks in European banking. While it is patently clear that Euro area's participation in the GFC has been based on the same meme of 'too big to fail' TBTF banks creating a tox... read more