Inflation takes control

Inflation, inflation everywhere and not an interest rate hike in sight.

Just watch, within 12 months, central banks around the world will begin to realize that there is only one medicine that cures the inflationary disease.

Eurozone inflation hits 4 percent

A 25 basis point gesture is all very well, but eurozone inflation needs much more.

Spanish economy crumbles

I wish I had some good links to Spanish data (any suggestions, please send them to me). It is the template for a real estate bubble gone bad.

Zimbabwe inflation hits 2.2 million percent

I'm impressed that Zim inflation can even be measured. Mugabe blames Britain for the collapse of the Zim economy. Perhaps the governor of the Zim central bank is an MI5 agent.

Bernanke says US inflation is too high

There is a simple solution, Ben; hike rates. Here is a link to the Fed minutes.

HBOS sliding again

The share prices is again below the rights issue price. Time to do another HBOS chart perhaps? If I have time, we might take another look tomorrow. The £4 billion rights issue closes on Friday.

Another stupid article from Kaletsky

The second one this week. Supposedly, we should look at the recent "better-than-expected" US numbers (industrial production, trade, consumer spending) and ignore the terrible ones (inflation, growth, huge debt levels, housing market, crashing dollar and financial sector instability).

Actually, the "better-than-expected" aren't that good. For example, the US trade deficit is still still very large. No, forget all this happy talk. The US is really in very poor shape.

If you are in any doubt, below is chart of US industrial production. If you look closely, the June number is fractionally higher than May. Nothing to worry about then.

Roubini on Bloomberg TV

Here are the highlights:

This is by far the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Hundreds of small banks with massive exposure to real estate will go bust

Dozens of large regional/national banks are also bankrupt given their extreme exposure to real estate and will also go bust