Mario Draghi spoke, last Thursday, and everyone must have thought his announcements were important... because right after his speech, stock markets went up and the euro fell against the dollar! What caused this abrupt temperature rise in the markets?

On Monday, France borrowed at a negative rate, which means investors are losing money... they’re paying to deposit their money! Even though this is for short-term loans (3, 6 and 12 months, for a total of 8.2 billion euros) at rates slightly below zero (-0.002% to -0.004%), this hadn’t occurred sinc...

The S&P 500 just passed the 2,000-point psychological threshold, an absolute record for that index, created in 1950 and comprising the 500 largest companies traded on the U.S. stock market

In Pebble Beach, California, during The Quails “Concours d’Élégance”, a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO was sold at auction by Bonhams for $38 million, which constitutes an all-time record for a collector’s automobile. What to think of this exorbitant amount?

The United States has just announced a 4% (annualised) growth for the second quarter, following a disastrous first quarter showing (finally revised, for the third time, at -2.1% instead of -2.9%). Though this sounds like good news, we should wait for the official revision of this 4% number that look...

One of the main arguments used by your banker to dissuade you from buying gold is that “it’s not generating anything”, either interest or dividends. It has been true, in a way, for some time. But, now that interest rates are at their lowest and that savings accounts and life insurance policies pract...

Beyond Deutsche Bank, we must understand that the large banks of the world are holding inordinate amounts of derivatives, beside which their own funds are ridiculously low. And this constitutes an endemic risk that is largely underestimated by the shareholders, as well as the depositors.

With virtually empty gold vaults, the central banks and bullion banks are now becoming desperate.

The American bank Citigroup has just been condemned by the Department of Justice to pay a fine of $7billion for its role in the subprime crisis.

Banks have not really taken preventive measures against sudden changes in their environment, and that their gross underestimation of risk puts them in a fragile position, should anything unexpected happen

In January of 2014, economists were predicting a 2.6% growth, and we get a result of -2.9%. This catastrophic number has been totally ignored by the markets and talked down by the Fed, of course, but this will make the return to reality that much more painful.

This anemic growth, this ever-delayed recovery and this QE tapering should normally be worrisome for the stock market, but things are staying put for now. How is that?

We often talk in these pages about the difficult situation facing Europe’s southern countries, but the financial crisis is also affecting countries that are considered sound and that have a good reputation. This is the case with Austria, facing difficulties with its banking sector.

Mario Draghi came out with several announcements on June 5 which have been very well received by pundits. These measures are supposed to encourage banks to make loans to businesses and, thus, help in sustaining the recovery. Let’s see what these measures really entail.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) just published a statistical study on the amount of derivatives worldwide at the end of 2013, and they reach the astronomical amount of $710 Trillions ($710,000,000,000,000).

There always is this media noise, constantly repeating itself, about optimistic growth predictions, but only real results should count, and they are not good at all.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Germany’s central bank would accept a move by the ECB in June if the outlook on inflation warrants it. The Buba now is siding with the general assumption that we have to fight deflation risks by turning on the printing press.

So what’s new in the States? The recovery... which needs more and more time to become a reality. Judge by yourself : Growth in the first quarter plummeted to a meager 0.1%. The explanation from official sources? Snow...

These last few days, the media would have us believe that Greece is doing better, that the country is on its way back up, and two irrefutable proofs are brought in for that demonstration : Greece is now experiencing a primary budgetary surplus, and it has regained access to financial markets. Let’s...

By constantly playing with words and abusing its people, the french government may face some violent consequences. The fall may be more brutal. France is the pivot country between Europe’s south and north, and a crisis surrounding the trust on its debt would spread to all of the Eurozone...