on 31 December 2012, from efxnews.com

JPY weakness continued to attract investor attention, even though its pace was exacerbated somewhat by thin year-end liquidity. In that regard, Barclays Capital advises its clients to leverage any JPY corrections in the near term to establish fresh long USD/JPY, GBP/JPY positions or to re-long at better levels ahead of the BoJ Jan 21-22 meting. "The political pressure from Abe’s administration on the BoJ to adopt more aggressive easing stance should continue to provide support for JPY-crosses, limiting its downside into the next BoJ meeting on January 21-22," Barclays clarifies. ... (Read the full story)

on 30 December 2012, from reuters.com

Former German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who is running against Chancellor Angela Merkel in next year's election, said austerity measures being imposed on struggling euro zone countries were too severe. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS), Steinbrueck said austerity measures were pushing some countries to do too much too soon. He said there would be massive protests in Germany if such a heavy dose of austerity were to be imposed so quickly. "The savings measures are too severe, they're leading to depression," said Steinbrueck, 65, a Social Democrat ... (Read the full story)

on 30 December 2012, from stuff.co.nz

Alan Bollard had a secret night job when he was Reserve Bank governor – writing a World War II-era thriller. His moonlighting as an author dates back even further to when he was treasury secretary. In the same month as his new book The Rough Mechanical finally made it into print, Bollard picked up a New Year honour for services to the state today. And tomorrow he starts his new job leading the secretariat of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation in Singapore. Bollard, 61, has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. The CNZM reflects a long career in government agencies, as ... (Read the full story)

on 30 December 2012, from guardian.co.uk

President Barack Obama made a final pitch to Congress to act on the fiscal cliff on Sunday, citing Republican intransigence as Senate leaders struggled to bash out a last-minute deal. In a rare foray onto the weekly round of political talk shows, the president sought to put the blame for looming economic crisis firmly at the door of the Republican party, accusing his opponents of having "trouble saying yes" to any proposal put before them. "They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only ... (Read the full story)