Thumbs up for "Super Mario" ?

17/3/15

 Thumbs up for "Super Mario" ?

Buttonwood in the Economist (Finance and Economics, p.78) gives a remarkably hearty round of applause for Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank. The ECB's programme of quantitative easing has already had the effect of boosting share prices and weakening the Euro (although those outside the Eurozone are less happy about that). In fact, a good number of recent indicators are encouraging. It would also be fair to say that the four-month extension of the loan agreement between Greece and its creditors came as a great relief, but as we have discussed that particular situation is a very long way from resolving itself and could yet prove to be an enormous fly-in-the-ointment.

The price of oil ..... it's the speculators who are to blame, apparently

With prices tumbling again, the Daily Telegraph ("Speculators to blame....", p.B5) relates how top Saudi oil official Ibrahim al-Muhanna laid the blame for the over 50% drop in prices at the door of speculators. This has long been the cry of both producers and consumers when markets move against them, but is interesting on this occasion on more than one level.