The biggest challenge to the dollar comes from China, the US’s main economic rival
The biggest pile of dollar bonds ever is coming due, which raises the spectre of major defaults.
"Information flows (internet traffic and phone calls, mainly) have exploded but trade and capital flows are still below their prerecession peaks."
The president-elect’s victory speech was encouraging but his temperament keeps everyone guessing.
The rand strengthened, ending its longest quarterly losing streak in almost 12 years, as exporters converted earnings from abroad.
The rand fell and bond yields rose on Monday morning, as lower commodity prices reflected soft Chinese industrial production figures.
With the United States election now over, the world waits with bated breath to see how the country will address its looming "fiscal cliff".
US President Barack Obama claimed he has a mandate to hike taxes on the rich, firing his first post-election shot at Republicans.
President Barack Obama has won a second term in the White House, overcoming deep doubts among voters about his handling of the US economy.
In the end, US President Barack Obama won re-election on the issue that was supposed to send him packing: the country’s sluggish economy.
With the US at risk of default, bonds and cash are a bigger risk than you realise.
Another way to think about the prospects of recovery is last week’s US wealth data. Americans lost a collective $12.7-trillion last year.
Barack Obama’s economic team is working on an overhaul of the -billion programme, with the aim of doing more to spur the flow of credit to the US.
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/ 27 November 2008
The bosses of the United States’ big three carmakers appeared before Congress last week to plead the case for a $25-billion government aid package.
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/ 3 November 2008
With the United States election just around the corner, who’d want to be in the shoes of either front-runner Barack Obama or John McCain?
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/ 15 October 2008
The global slowdown could affect mining, writes Lynley Donnelly.
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/ 14 October 2008
Having sabotaged eco-innovations, the motor industry is now demanding billions, writes George Monbiot.
It was a bad plan — but it was a plan. The refusal of the US House of Representatives to back Hank Paulson’s bail out takes us into new territory.
Washington has seen a ‘throw the bums out’ mood before. But this is something else.
Emergency rescue plan to go back to the House of Representatives.
As the global markets have gone into meltdown, South Africa is relatively isolated — but only relatively.
The true impact of this plan lies in the limitations it will place on other areas of public spending, writes Bill Emmott.
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/ 19 September 2008
Who’s to blame? Indebted Americans? Alan Greenspan? Slack credit rating agencies? Greedy and overpaid chief executives?
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/ 18 September 2008
Larry Elliott takes a look at the bail-out which is a nationalisation designed to avert the worst market collapse since the 1930s.
An official "watch list" of potentially troubled US banks has lengthened from 90 to 117 as the credit crunch wreaks havoc.
Share prices dropped sharply on the world’s financial markets early last week amid fears that the year-long credit crunch is entering a dangerous new
The Federal Reserve warned this week that financial markets remained under heavy pressure as it announced that it was holding American interest rates.