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Italy's economy will shrink by 1.4% this year, a much sharper contraction than previously forecast, according to the national statistic agency. Istat forecast that Italy will post 0.7% growth in 2014, but added that unemployment will reach a record

Last month we laid out the reasons why France was On The Brink Of A Secondary Depression—in short, due to a deadly collision of French politics with Frankensteinian monetary union. Unfortunately, subsequent data confirms the bleak trajectory: The

The stock markets closed on Friday at their all-time highs. However, one of the biggest headscratchers has been the nature of the stock market rally. Specifically, the more conservative sectors like health care have been outperforming the more

At 27.2%, Spain is suffering the worst unemployment rate in modern history. Spain is tied with Greece, and is worse than the approximately 25% unemployment rate that the U.S. saw during The Great Depression. The causes, by now, are familiar — the end

Hedge funds increased bets on a gold rally by the most in three weeks as central banks signaled no end to economic stimulus, driving prices higher just as analysts and traders turned the most bearish in three years. The funds and other large

Euro rose to a session high against the dollar on Tuesday after German industrial orders data beat expectations. The single currency rose 0.2 percent to $1.3111 from $1.3077 after data showed industrial orders in the euro zone's largest economy grew

European countries should not address their economic weaknesses by "redistributing competitiveness" among them and reducing Germany's strength, but by raising the bloc's competitiveness as a whole, Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said on Tuesday

Billionaire John Paulson, the hedge- fund manager seeking to reverse two years of losses in some of his strategies, lost 27 percent in his Gold Fund last month after the precious metal and related securities plummeted, according to two people

The Cypriot deposit confiscation has come and gone (and in a parallel world in which the global Bernanke-put never existed and in which bank shareholders were not untouchable, this is precisely how real-time bank restructurings should have taken

The trend this week continues: It's very quiet. Asian markets were fairly quiet, although Japan did gain 0.7% to hit a new record for its run. After solid trade data from China, the Shanghai composite gained 0.48%. Europe is totally flat, and US

German industrial output unexpectedly rose in March, figures from the Economy Ministry showed on Wednesday, contrasting with other recent data that has painted a much gloomier picture of Europe's largest economy. Output jumped by 1.2 percent on the

Lars Seier Christensen, chief executive of Saxo Bank, said it was clear that the eurozone would eventually break up as Brussels claimed even more power and used it “ever more poorly”. The break-up of the 17-nation bloc could take shape in several

With the inflation rate about half of the Federal Reserve's 2.0 percent target, the central bank is facing a major test and some experts wonder whether it will eventually need to ramp up its already aggressive bond buying program. The Fed cut

Which euro-zone country is most deeply in debt? The profligate Greeks, with their generous state-funded pensions? The Cypriots and their banks stuffed with dodgy Russian money? The recession-hit Spaniards or the boom-and-bust Irish? None of the

European stocks were little changed as investors awaited the Bank of England’s decision on continuing economic stimulus and as the Bank of Korea cut interest rates. U.S. index futures were little changed, while Asian shares fell. Snam SpA lost 3.8

The European Central Bank will refrain from cutting its interest rate again until at least 2015, according to economists surveyed since President Mario Draghi’s pledge last week to deliver another reduction if needed. The Frankfurt-based central bank

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank

The dollar rallied across the board on Thursday, bolstered by an upbeat U.S. jobless claims report that suggested a stabilizing labor market in the world's largest economy. The euro, meanwhile, faltered against the dollar after two days of gains

The yen weakened beyond 100 per dollar for the first time in four years as the Bank of Japan’s deflation-fighting measures have the currency headed for its longest streak of monthly losses in almost two decades. Japan’s currency has dropped 3.5

The legal claims on physical gold far exceed the amount of physical gold that the banks actually have by a very, very wide margin. And right now the bankers are scared out of their wits because their warehouses are being drained of physical gold at a