EZU News and Press, iShares MSCI EMU ETF From 07/08/19

The very concept of the Eurozone is a difficult one Sure, it's the set of countries, economies, that use the same currency. And thus have the same central bank and the same base interest rates. The actual problem with the concept being that they're just not the same economy and are all worki...

The European Council's decision to propose Christine Lagarde and Ursula von der Leyen as the presidential candidates for the European Central Bank ((ECB)) and European Commission, respectively, sends three subtle but important messages to financial markets: 1) Continuity. Other candidates,...

Total Return S&P 500 vs. VFWIX (Global ex-U.S. ETF) Source: Yahoo Finance It has been a disheartening decade for investors focused on equities outside the U.S. [[VFWIX]], an exchanged traded fund ((ETF)) that tracks the FTSE All Word ex U.S. Index, finished 2018 at almost the same ...

Last month, ECB President Mario Draghi made a genuine effort to change the trend that saw inflation expectations in the EU moving down sharply in recent years. During a speech that he gave at the bank meeting in Sintra, Portugal, Draghi said that a new asset purchase plan has been considered...

Overview: The dovish response to news that Lagarde was nominated to replace Draghi was extended by the dismal German factory order report that has pushed the euro to new two-week lows and kept bond yields near record lows. The focus ahead of the weekend is squarely on the US employment data,...

By Raju Huidrom, Economist, Emerging Economies Division, European Department of the IMF; Carlos Mulas-Granados, Senior Economist, European Department of the IMF; Laura Papi, Assistant Director, Asia and Pacific Department of the IMF, heading the South Asia division; and Emil Stavrev, Deputy D...

David Beckworth : Our guest today is Jeffry Frieden. Jeff is a professor of government at Harvard University, where he specializes in the politics of international monetary and financial relations. Jeff is the author of many articles and books, including *Currency Politics: The Political Econ...

By David Zahn, CFA, FRM, Head of European Fixed Income, Senior Vice President, Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group® Christine Lagarde may have emerged as a surprise candidate to take the helm of the European Central Bank (ECB), but David Zahn, our Head of European Fixed Income, see...

It is a "War," of sorts. It does not involve armaments or tanks or military armies running over the Continent but it is the third world conflict for the control and domination of Europe. While everyone focuses on the trade wars with America and China, and some focus on what is happening with I...

Wednesday, July 3, 2019 - Another quarter down and investors (and the Federal Reserve) are still wondering which way this thing is going and whether it’s time to start taking some chips off the table. On the one hand, investors suffered through a minor pullback by equities in May only...