Although the Super Bowl is long past us and the sports pages are now dominated by (delete as appropriate) NCAA basketball/Champions League/spring training/Man U takeover talk, Macro Man cannot get the familiar quarterback cadence (cunningly used as the title of today’s post) out of his head. As highlighted in this space yesterday, the market is aflame with rumours today that China will imminently hike either the RRR, its policy interest... 

It was all looking like an orthodox drift higher in equity markets last night until the SPX rolled over in a late-session swoon, perhaps on rumours that the government would flog out its considerable holding in Citigroup? Regardless, Macro Man’s Bloomberg inbox lit up with comments on the heavy futures selling driving the 7 point reversal…..perhaps this is a sign of the top?…  Read More →

Well, when all was said and done Friday’s payroll report wasn’t half bad. The BLS clearly scuffled with figuring out just how much of an impact the snow had on the data, but even so with only a marginal adjustment for the weather you’d end up with a pretty decent set of figures. The reaction in equities and “pro-risk” currency pairs was fairly predictable, though the decent performance of European currencies may... 

OK, first things first. Sadly, the last few days have seen the emergence of a particularly boorish class of troll in the comments section, all of whom appear dedicated to proving the proposition that half the world has a double digit IQ. While Macro Man does not enjoy moderating/deleting abusive comments from cretins, neither does he wish to see himself or this space overrun by drooling vermin. He has therefore decided to impose a registration... 

Man, this Greek saga (myth? legend?) just rumbles on and on and on, doesn’t it? The last 24 hours has seen a raft of developments, from a) yet another austerity package announcement (insert joke about the newly Spartan lifestyle of Greek civil servants here.) b) The IMF (Greece’s future partner in reform) welcomed the announcement. c) So did Moody’s, but they also said Greece still needs to show that it can raise funds in the... 

Some people just like a good moan every so often. Take, for example, your intrepid author; when the morning train service faces yet another severe disruption (courtesy of a fire in the London Bridge area ), does he resignedly shrug his shoulders and adopt the standard “musn’t grumble” attitude of the plucky Brit? No! He instead seizes the opportunity to make “clever” cutting remarks to his friends or, in their absence,... 

Readers will be pleased to hear that after a week of blizzard-like conditions in La Plagne (similar to those which were his undoing last year), Macro Man is still standing after his return to the slopes. To be sure, he wasn’t quite as good as new: he dialled down his all-action style to concentrate on his technique, and by the end …  Read More →

…Macro Man will be making his first appearance on the ski slopes since the defining moment of his 2009 . It’s been ten months since his ACL reconstruction, and over that period he’s put in more hours than he can count in stretching, lifting, jumping, and other forms of rehabilitation. While some might think it foolhardy to return to the slopes a year after his injury, from Macro Man’s perspective he had but two options: with... 

Another day, another bout of troubling news on Greece- the German business lobby is now calling for Greece to lose all EU voting priviliges until they sort themselves out, and Martin Feldstein is calling for a cheeky tactical exit and 30% currency realignmen t. Dr. Feldstein is almost certainly displaying a bit of naivete in his apparent belief that both the market and the rest of the EU would allow Greece back into the monetary union after a... 

Congratulations to Didier Defago, new Olympic downhill champion, for conquereing the Dave Murray course yesterday in Whistler. The run is the second longest in Alpine skiing (behind Wengen in, perhaps uncoincidentally, Defago’s home country of Switzerland), and as such requires a substantial degree of stamina. It was this endurance angle that made yesterday’s competition so compelling, as the fastest skier on the top half of the course... 

…will, alas, not resume this week after all, as Macro Man is snowbound in what seems like the third or fourth “Storm of the Century” this year. It seems as if normal service has at least returned to policymaking circles, where Europe seems to have decided on a “September 2008″ response to the Greek crisis: announce a rescue plan before you’ve decided on any of the details. The limp response this far from the euro... 

Macro Man’s travelling for the next few days, so will be unable to offer any updates. Readers should feel free to use the comments section for the usual market repartee, but please: play nicely.  Read More →

Yesterday proved to be a bit of a milestone for your author. For the first time since his knee injury a year ago, Macro Man held a golf club in his hand, as he made it down to the driving range to hit a hundred balls. The good news: there was no noticeable change in his swing due to the layoff. The bad news: there was no noticeable change in his swing due to the layoff, as he sprayed an astonishing assortment of slices, scuffs, and duck hooks... 

It’s suddenly turned into a bit of a horror show, hasn’t it? It seems as if the combined weight of Greek contagion, Chinese tightening, political risk, and so/so economic data has finally managed to break the camel’s back, and Macro Man’s Bloomberg screens are a sea of red this morning. Still, the market environment is quite tame by the standards of the past couple of years, so it’s hard to envisage anyone outside... 

Readers will be happy to hear that after a lengthy, tedious ordeal, Macro Man managed to secure the requisite stamp in his passport yesterday. How bad was it? The level of bureaucracy was stunning: Macro Man had to pass twelve different interaction points before he was admitted to consult with the officer considering his case. And after that meeting, he was convinced that they had granted him de facto indefinite leave to remain….by virtue...