Economic Tidbits From EconomicPolicyMonitor.com

[Demeter]

http://www.economicpolicymonitor.com/

Friday, May 18, 2007
Goldman's Value Tops $100 Billion Mark

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the highest-earning securities firm in Wall Street history, set a record today as its market value crossed $100 billion.

The shares gained $2.96, or 1.3 percent, to $230.34 today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Labels: GoldmanSachs

posted by Raymond Weber @ 6:59 PM

The Silent Crash of the Dollar

While Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson continues to call for China to adopt policies that will result in a lower dollar against the yuan, the dollar has been in a quiet collapse against most major currencies.

Over the last four years, the dollar is down

23.49% versus the British Pound

20.57% versus the Canadian Dollar

19.55% versus the Australian Dollar

20.18% versus the Euro

11.61% versus the Swiss Franc

and

17.89% versus the Indian Rupee.

With the Federal Reserve continuing to pump double digit rates of liquidity into the system, expect the dollar collapse to quicken to the point where it will eventually be a front page headline story--then Treasury Secretary Paulson will stop jawboning the Chinese about a higher yuan versus the dollar. The Fed will panic and raise rates, and the boom will stop, resulting in record numbers of hedge fund managers and private equity partners blowing up portfolios.
Labels: dollar, euro, HedgeFunds, PrivateEquity, yuan

posted by Raymond Weber @ 1:35 PM


Tony Blair Could Be Next World Bank President

Joesph Stiglitz, a Nobel prize-winning economist and former senior vice-president and chief economist at the World Bank, told BBC Radio 5 that Blair "is one of the people that is clearly being discussed."

Others mentioned as a possible replacement for Paul Wolfowitz were former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who was Bush's former trade chief; Robert Kimmitt, the No. 2 at the Treasury Department; Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson; former Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa; Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.,; Stanley Fischer, who once worked at the International Monetary Fund and is now with the Bank of Israel; and former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.
Labels: TonyBlair, WorldBank

posted by Raymond Weber @ 11:26 AM