The big news this week was the co-ordinated move by central banks in the US, Europe, Japan, Canada, England and Switzerland to enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system. If, like me, you are wondering what the heck the Central banks mean by dollar liquidity swaps, here is a very good explanation from CNN Money.
Radoslaw Sikorski is the Foreign Minister of Poland. In a recent speech in Berlin, he outlines how Europe could get past its current crisis through closer fiscal integration. It’s a brilliant speech and worth checking out for an excellent insight into the European crisis.
Segregated Funds often become popular when the stock markets start to wobble. Preet Banerjee points out that you should double check the contract to make sure you’ll actually be getting your money back.
Jon Chevreau made a very good point about ETFs: it is not trading volume of the ETF itself that matters, rather it is the liquidity of the underlying basket of securities.
Bloomberg ran an excellent story on how China’s housing boom has created large numbers of “housing slaves” who are struggling under crippling mortgage debt and are upset about a modest drop in home prices.
Here’s another column comparing returns from housing with that of the stock market while completely ignoring that the bulk of the returns from real estate comes in the form of rental payments.
Blog roundup will return next week. Have a great weekend everyone!
