China's Exchange Rate Policy

A Decent Analysis from Fareed Zakaria:
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2024090,00.html

Some impressive photographs capture China's infrastructure push:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1899871_1889060,00.html

Unintended Consequences of Fed's Low Interest Rate Policy

Cash rich US corporations are issuing bonds just to take advantage of extraordinarily low interest rates. Companies such as Microsoft and IBM, which sit on billions of dollars of cash, find that it makes sense to accumulate new debt just because rates are so low.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/business/04borrow.html

An interesting quote from the above article:
"Corporations now sit atop a combined $1.6 trillion of cash, a figure equal to slightly more than 6 percent of their total assets. In the first quarter of this year it was 6.2 percent of assets, the highest level since 1964, when it was 6.4 percent." 


Good economic news might deflate the bond market bubble:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/bonds/2010-10-05-bonds05_CV_N.htm

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz highlights some of the international consequences of Fed's ultra loose monetary policy:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-10-06/stiglitz-says-fed-s-rates-causing-liquidity-flood-currency-misalignment.html

An In-depth Look at the IMF

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,druck-721158,00.html

HIIC - A New Acronym

HIIC - Heavily Indebted Industrialized Countries
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704789404575524402059410506.html

Those who are familiar with the events of the mid to late 1990s (1994 Mexican Crisis, 1997 Asian Crisis, 1998 Brazilian and Russian Crisis) would find this ironic.


Meanwhile, Decoupling is Back (at least, according to some Wall Street economists)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-10-03/world-economy-decoupling-from-u-s-in-slowdown-returns-as-wall-street-view.html

Also, Bloomberg has an interesting interview with Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian of PIMCO:
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/63469612/

Emerging Markets News

Will India Catch-Up to China (in GDP growth rates)?
http://www.economist.com/node/17145035
http://www.economist.com/node/17147648


Venezuela - An Oil Exporter Faces Dollar Shortages
http://www.economist.com/node/17043041/print

US Goes Backwards on International Trade

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703466104575529753735783116.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521822940983434.html

Meanwhile Europe and Asia forge ahead on inking free trade agreements:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/business/global/17trade.html

What Caused the Wall Street Flash Crash on May 6, 2010?

Algo-trading is to blame for the flash crash.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/business/02flash.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703748904575411932721272988.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704029304575526390131916792.html